Barney Breen has explained how emigration takes away more than the actual player.

Shocking figures reveal that Leitrim's county set-up lost 14 players in the last twelve months - from a total of 99 lost to clubs around the county.

County joint-manager Breen points out that, along with the player, the team also loses the time that has been invested in working on his strength and conditioning:

"Eight of the team that beat Sligo in the 2011 championship either emigrated or retired - mostly emigrated due to a lack of work," Breen comments in The Leitrim Observer.

"We found it very hard at the beginning of last year with the squad being depleted. The biggest thing about today's game is the aspect of strength and conditioning.

"A player has to be built up over a three- or four-year period of strength and conditioning.

"When you invest in a guy for a year or two and then he leaves, then you are starting off from year one.

"We found that this was our biggest problem last year, as we didn't have the power to compete with the bigger teams." Tweet

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