Conor Counihan has ruled out making wholesale changes to his Cork football squad.

The Rebels welcomed back long-term injury victim Colm O'Neill during Sunday's McGrath Cup win over Clare and will also re-introduce Ciaran Sheehan and Daniel Goulding in the coming months. Speaking in the Irish Times, their manager says there'll be no major surprises when he names his final panel for the season:

"There'll come a point in the next couple of weeks when we have to cut back on numbers, depending on injuries and other commitments. But you wouldn't want to be leaving it open for too long.

"We'll be giving a chance to anyone who's performing well but if you're asking if there'll be wholesale change, that won't be happening.

"I suppose having been involved in the latter stages for a good few years, you're hoping that it could help recapture a bit of freshness or hunger that being on the outside for a while might bring.

"It's difficult to unravel. Without the injuries it would have been easier to work out the effect of winning the All-Ireland.

"Once you're champions you're there to be shot at and teams lift their game so maintaining hunger would have been a definite challenge but with all of the injuries we'll never know the full story.

"But the statistics tell you everything about putting All-Irelands back to back." Tweet

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