KILMACUD CROKES STAR midfielder Craig Dias suspects that “the ship has sailed” on his future with the Dublin footballers after briefly being recalled to the panel in 2020.

Dias was part of the Dublin squad who ended a 16-year wait to lift the Sam Maguire in 2011, and was an unused sub in the dramatic final against Kerry.

Current Dubs boss Dessie Farrell brought him back into the fold for the early stages of the 2020 season, earning a start spot at midfield alongside Brian Fenton against Donegal in the Allianz Football League.

However, his second shot was short-lived after he was taken off at half time during that game.

Dias recalls the build up to that Donegal game as a “whirwind week” and now at 31, he believes his chance to break into the Dublin team again may have passed him by.

“It was a whirlwind week when I got in with Dublin. I thought that ship had sailed. I’d say I’d been playing good football with Crokes and Dessie acknowledged that. I did play a friendly against Dublin the week before the Donegal game, played well, there’s energy there, pulled me in on the Tuesday trained and then got selected for the starting team on Thursday.

“A lot of that fell on me. I said I was ready. I probably needed some some fitness work and more actual match practice because that was at the start of, of the club campaign. So and I think now that ship has sailed, I was 29.

“It’s potentially the last hurrah, really. So I think now you’re better off focusing on procuring young talented players and developing them rather than bringing in someone 31 to plug a gap.”

His Crokes team-mate Paul Mannion is also absent from the Dublin panel, although his status is based on his own decision not to be involved. The three-time All-Star withdrew from the squad at the outset of the 2021 season, and has recently announced that he wants to extend his break and doesn’t plan on returning this year.

The star forward is currently recovering after undergoing knee surgery earlier this month. He suffered the injury during his side’s Leinster semi-final victory over Portarlington and subsequently missed their provincial triumph after beating Naas in the final.

In the build-up to that game, Mannion indicated to the media that he was confident of being fit in time for the decider but it now appears that he is unlikely to feature in their All-Ireland semi-final against Roscommon’s Pádraig Pearses on Saturday.

Craig Dias celebrates after KilmacuD c Ryan Byrne / INPHO Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO

“It was handled really, really well between management and Paul Mannion. So we heard rumblings of it after after the game. So the focus was just on on Naas and getting the players performing correctly.

“All of that was being handled to decide on the side of the pitch so we weren’t concentrating on will he be available won’t he be available. We were just as a collective going to win the game. So yes, he’s a 10x player. His output is incredible. He’s putting up ridiculous scores and the scores that he is taking are from ridiculous angles as well.

“Even when he is playing, we still do not want to rely on Mannion. It might look like we do.

“He has dug us out a couple of times and that on us but we try to win the game without Mannion and Mannion dictates the winning score line or the margin that we win by. And that’s the mentality that we’ve had. We can still go out and perform with the three other best teams in the AIB championship at this stage.”

The42 Rugby Weekly / SoundCloud

Bernard Jackman, Murray Kinsella, and Gavan Casey glance ahead to the Six Nations, chat about the Irish provinces’ progress in Europe, then discuss the latest off-the-pitch drama in Welsh rugby.