Mickey Harte has rubbished suggestions that inter-county football is no longer enjoyable and that players have become 'slaves' to the inter-county game.

The Tyrone manager said in the Belfast Telegraph: "You hear it said that players are slaves to the game at county level but I don't think this is true at all.

"I think players are what they want to be. I believe there is too much made of the perception that there is no joy or no fun in the game any longer.

"There is total joy and total fun in Gaelic football at this level. These players dedicate their lives to this and if they did not choose football they would be doing something else.

"You would find that they would be doing 5k forest runs or half marathons or something else. They would certainly dedicate themselves to something that would drive them and help them to challenge themselves to be the best they can be."

Harte added: "There is not one person I know who has to be driven to training or forced into it.

"They don't have to be put out through the door to training by their wife or anyone else. Nor are managers getting them through the dressing-room door and saying to them 'suffer this tonight'."

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