Veteran McCabe"s Cavan career may be over

Former All Star Dermot McCabe"s 15-year career with the Cavan senior footballers may be over after team manager Tommy Carr claimed that he would play no further part in the current campaign. In Tuesday"s Irish Independent , Carr stated: 'He hasn"t been around for the last two weeks. He was due to be with us in Galway on Sunday but he didn"t come. As far as I am concerned that is the end for this season.' McCabe was listed to line out at full-forward in a challenge match in Headfort but was not present. Some sources have suggested that McCabe received no contact from the manager prior to the match and the appearance of Tuesday"s article, although Carr was adamant that the Gowna man"s decision not to participate came as a surprise to him. 'I assume something happened that he couldn"t make it or whatever,' Carr told The Anglo Celt, confirming that the player did not contact him to say that he wouldn"t be travelling. Referring to a radio report on Tuesday morning, Carr indicated that he believed that McCabe had now retired. 'I heard an announcement on the sports news that Dermot has retired from inter-county football,' said the manager. Carr stated on Tuesday that he spoke with McCabe 'around ten days ago' and that the player didn"t indicate then that he was considering withdrawing from the panel. 'I"d say it was probably about ten days ago, maybe at a training session. He didn"t say it at that stage but obviously he has had a long think about things and has made a decision to leave the inter-county scene,' said the manager, who confirmed that - contrary to suggestions - McCabe was still a part of his plans. 'You"ll always want players like him around and you"d like their experience around,' he said. 'I"m not saying there was 70 minutes of high tempo championship football in Dermot but certainly we would have felt that he would have had something to offer in the championship.' It now appears very unlikely that the 33-year-old former Cavan Player of the Year, one of the county"s most consistent performers for 15 years, will play any part. When asked, Carr stated that he 'would assume' that"s McCabe will not be involved with the county team again. 'I would assume not if he has made a decision to part from inter-county football. That"s totally up to the player himself,' said Carr.