New Offaly football boss Gerry Cooney will have to plan without Ciaran McManus next season after the Tubber clubman brought the curtain down on his 16-year inter-county career.

News of the 34-year-old's retirement, who made his Leinster championship debut against Louth in 1996 and was the longest-serving inter-county footballer in the country after Sligo's Eamonn O'Hara, comes just a few weeks after star forward Niall McNamee announced that he would not play for Offaly again in frustration at the delay in appointing a successor to Tom Cribbin as manager.

As well as being one of the fittest GAA players in country, McManus was also one of the most committed and he continued to line out for the Faithful County despite his work with the ESB taking him to far-flung places such as Finland and Germany. He made 120 NFL appearances and played 64 championship matches for the midlanders, with the highlight coming in 1997 when Offaly came from Division 4 to win a Leinster title under Tommy Lyons.

He also captained the Faithful to a NFL Division 2 title and helped his club Tubber to achieve senior status in the middle part of the last decade. In addition, he represented Ireland in the International Rules series on a number of occasions and remains the most capped Irish player along with Derry's Sean Marty Lockhart. Tweet

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