Down boss Jim McCorry will have to plan without the services of Ryan Mallon and Niall Donnelly for the upcoming Ulster SFC.

McCorry confirmed to The Irish News that the pair have left the Mourne County squad, saying: "Ryan Mallon has left the squad. He has a new job and it's a very demanding job that he is in.

"He asked just to stand down from the squad. Hopefully, things settle down and he may return at a later date, maybe next year, but obviously it's important for him in his career.

"He's in the legal profession and it's very, very demanding for him there is no problem with that."

He continued: "The other (player to stand down) is Niall Donnelly.

"Niall talked about leaving the squad earlier on in the year and stayed on for a while, but he had a lot of commitments coming up over the four-week period from the Division Two final and knew he wasn't able to commit  to the training schedule and the matches we had.

"It wasn't giving him much of a chance to show before the Derry game, so Niall asked could he go back to his club just to try and get a wee bit of form back and a wee bit of playing time and maybe be looked at at a later date as well."

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