Monaghan stalwart Dick Clerkin has announced his intercounty retirement.

Having made his debut for the Farney County in 1999, the veteran midfielder was the GAA's longest-serving intercounty player - the only one to have been around since the last millennium. He was part of a Monaghan side that defied all expectations to emerge from the wilderness with Ulster SFC successes in 2013 and 2015.

In a heartfelt column in today's Irish Examiner, the Currin clubman relates:

"Discussing it with my wife Alison at length over the past few months, we both agreed that, for various reasons, it was time to move on. Crucially it feels right, but if I'm honest I knew long before now.

"A qualifier defeat to Longford in Clones marked my final day with Monaghan. With the boys struggling with the after-effects of a gruelling two-game battle with Donegal in the weeks previous, I watched on helplessly as a Longford ambush unfolded. Warming up, hoping to get one last run, I glanced into the crowd only to see my eldest son, Cailean, smiling curiously at me from only a few feet away.

"He had been running along the front of the stand, mimicking my warm-up all evening. Making way for youth, I watched the final sub being brought on ahead of me. I knew there and then I was unlikely to be togged out for Monaghan again.

"Before walking back to the stand, I motioned to Cailean to go for one last length of the stand together. He won't remember it, but I will. One last memory to treasure, from an already bulging collection.

"With a sense of duty and commitment in the jersey instilled by my father, I was always confident of enjoying a long career with Monaghan. What I couldn't have banked on was having a career that coincided with so many remarkable team-mates with like-minded values and ambition. Leaders amongst men, their unshakeable commitment to club and county has been remarkable."

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