New Wexford hurling boss Liam Dunne will be forced to end the careers of some of the county's longest serving players after none of them announced their retirements during the close season.

Following his appointment as Colm Bonnar's successor last November, the 1996 All-Ireland winning centre back expressed the hope that any decision to retire players wouldn't be left up to him, but it now seems he won't avoid such a scenario as he embarks on the task of building a new team for the 2012 campaign.

"Nobody's retired. We haven't finalised the panel and won't for a while yet. We've had a development team going but we'll be having a couple of games among ourselves over the next couple of weeks," he said in Irish Examiner.

"The Walsh Cup is coming up in two weeks' time and it'll be about getting a team together. Lads will be given their opportunity in January although there's a big difference between getting your chance in January and getting it in June. It's up to the fellas themselves to take it."

He continued: "We've only just started back and we're a long way behind other counties but I didn't see the value in getting in with the lads too early. Maybe it could come back to bite me but we're getting going now," he said.

"If we win our Walsh Cup game (against NUI Galway) we play Kilkenny but we've a long road ahead of us and I wouldn't be sure it's a straight one. It's a huge challenge for everyone involved." Tweet

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