Addressing the findings of the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) report “Playing Senior Inter-County Gaelic games: Realities and Consequences”, Horan questioned how mindful managers are of their players’ well-being.

He suggested a performance director could be a means of regulating the commitments placed on leading footballers and hurlers.

Horan, who gave anecdotal evidence of players telling him they chose to be teachers until such time as their inter-county careers are over, elaborated to the media: “Maybe we need to look and see can we identify somebody, who, in a neutral way, could influence what commitment there is for players.

“If we leave it to managers ... some managers could be the greatest clubmen when they are with the club, all of a sudden become a different character when they are with the county and tell players not to play with their clubs.”

“Maybe we need an independent adjudicator to control that.”

Hickey is intrigued by Horan’s proposal which he compared to the type of work undertaken by David Nucifora in the IRFU.

“A designated player relations officer like whatever is there in the IRFU is a very intriguing prospect and again it might eliminate this seesaw motion of new managers, new regimes and different philosophies coming in and changing how things were done. I would encourage it, I would be for it but it is resource dependent.”

Hickey appreciates the GAA and regulation don’t go hand-in-hand with the winter training ban being the case in point. However, the Limerick hurler believes there was no plan to enforce it.

“I’m not a massive fan of the NCAA (National College Athletic Association) now in the US, but they have regimented maximum training hours during the week and there are significant punishments for any breaches of that. The programme is punished for the actions of that particular team.

“So it is enforceable — and we are talking about a massive competition base over there where they have dozens of different teams.

“We have dozens of teams and its success would be reliant on how committed you are to enforcing it — and we are a stakeholder in that.”

Former Tipperary senior hurling manager Eamon O’Shea, who was a member of the report’s oversight committee, also believes regulation is possible and highlighted the problems of a “quasi-professional” environment unless there are checks and balances.

Hickey suggested in his response that the findings of the report would strengthen the GPA’s hand when it comes to negotiating their next round of funding with the GAA next year.

He also stressed it confirmed the financial commitment made by Croke Park to the welfare of inter-county players.

“Well it’s the same with the GAA, they would feel that they’ve dedicated a lot of resources to this. But we find year after year that we’re at capacity for the players.

“So, for example, the player development coaching that specifically focuses on some of the things such as choosing careers and delaying career decisions, some of the intensive programmes that we have are enormously successful with individual engagements.

“We’re limited in the number of them we can roll out because year-on-year we land a budget with no profit — ideally no loss.”

Hickey accepts some of the statistics from the report conducted last year and based on answers provided by 2016 inter-county panel members would have changed in light of the alterations made to the All-Ireland senior competitions this year.

“This is a snapshot of the GAA in 2016. You can’t have it every way and Eilish (Kelly, report author) has done a great job with presenting the findings with what she had at the time. In terms of time commitments and things like that it (the Championship restructures) would change things, but in terms of injuries it wouldn’t change that.”

10 statistics that will cause alarm

83% of inter-county players in 2016 said they were glad to be playing football and hurling at the highest level.

However, there were several alarming figures arising from the launch of yesterday’s ESRI report, with author Elish Kelly pointing out that the compromises players are making in their personal levels to sustain their inter-county commitments is not sustainable.

Here are the 10 statistics that will worry the GAA:

• The number of players spending 31 hours per week on inter-county commitments is, as Eamon O’Shea acknowledged, “the equivalent of another job”.
• 97.3% of footballers said their inter-county exploits takes up a large amount of time and the figure for hurlers was 95.1%.
• 40% of inter-county players say they did not have any time off from Gaelic games in 2016. The lack of an off-season lends to that.
• Players were above the threshold for being at risk of depression but the study found their mental wellbeing is lower to what it is for the population as a whole, especially those of similar age.
• 2016 players said they spent just 2.4 hours a day on personal relationships and downtime. A worrying 45.9% of over 30s claimed they spent less than one hour on them.
• The issue of those players living outside the counties they play for was also addressed and they were found to have spent more time on their inter-county pursuits (6.7 hours a day) and just over an hour-and-a-half per day on personal relationships and downtime.
• 77% reported the lack of time with family, partners and friends as the main downside of inter-county GAA.
• 47.6% of players ceased playing at the end of 2016 to focus on their professional careers.
• 82% of footballers and hurlers believed “to some extent too much effort was demanded of them”.
• 87% admitted they had to watch their behaviour in public.