FIRST THEY lost Tadhg Kennelly and Tommy Walsh to the Australian game. Then they lost Diarmuid Murphy and Darragh Ó Sé to retirement.

They lost their opening two league games and now they’ve lost Paul Galvin for the next eight weeks through suspension. Word is they may lose Mike McCarthy too – and now Tomás Ó Sé says he mightn’t be coming back either.

“If they keep losing I won’t be coming back anyway,” he says. “I am training away, but it’s just hard with the travelling up from Cork, and the family now, so I will leave it off another while.”

Ó Sé may have been speaking in jest, but rarely has the future of the All-Ireland champions looked more uncertain. Although he turns 32 this year, the middle of Kerry’s Ó Sé brothers was always intent on returning for 2010 – after collecting his fifth All-Ireland and fifth All Star in 2009 – and yet he remains on an extended break, and won’t be available when Kerry resume their league defence in Tralee on Sunday with a rematch against last year’s beaten finalists, Derry.

He’ll probably come back “around Easter”, and when he does, Ó Sé will realise for himself just how changed Kerry will feel, particularly now that the elder statesman, Darragh Ó Se, has hung up his boots. Although not entirely surprised, Tomás reckons his brother could have continued for another year, although he didn’t exactly say that to his face.

“I do feel he would have been well able to keep going if he had wanted to. It’s very hard though with age and the amount of years that he has given. It would have been hard for him to come back. He would have more than easily held his own again, but we respect his decision.

“It will be very strange not having him around though. He has been a huge part of Kerry football for the last 15 years. Himself, and Séamus Moynihan, have been the two best players I have played with.

“I’m not saying that because he is my brother, but he is the best midfielder I have seen playing football, and he has had a huge impact on Kerry with his play, his style of play and his ability to make fellas play better. He is a leader and we don’t have too many of those at the moment. He is a huge loss to us, but we have to get on with it. There’s no point crying over it either.

“But I don’t think it was my place to convince him to stay on. Darragh was always the type that if he wanted to do something he would do it. He thought about it long and hard, weighed things up and made the decision he wanted himself. As I said, I think he could have done another year but you have to respect his decision.”

Now that he is gone, and that McCarthy is strongly considering retirement too, Ó Sé admits Kerry face a far more daunting task in defending their All-Ireland title than perhaps initially envisaged: “It is, I suppose, between retirement and suspensions as well. Tommy Walsh is a severe loss. Tadhg Kennelly got better for us as the year went on last year and he would have been brilliant for us again this year.

“The fact that we have lost three or four players means we have to try things out. If you do that there is a chance you are going to lose games. There are lot of players back in training there now that weren’t there. Hopefully, they get a few wins under their belts. Certainly it is of great importance that they stay up in Division One.”

Confirmation of Galvin’s eight-week suspension arising from an incident in the second round defeat to Cork would, Ó Sé says, suggest he remains a target of referees (Cork’s Eoin Cadogan got four weeks, while Galvin’s term was doubled as it was his second red card within a year).

“Fellas are saying he is getting a bit of a rough deal and, to be fair, I think there is a bit of that. It is easier to send him off because it is Paul, or whatever. The break might do him good. Fellas would say that he has had too many breaks the last couple of years but he has played a lot of football and he will hopefully come back in better shape.”