Michael Murphy: Donegal forward to continue playing in 2026

Michael Murphy has confirmed to BBC Sport NI that he intends to play for Donegal again in 2026 after helping the Ulster county win this year’s Ulster Senior Football Championship and reach the All-Ireland final on his return to inter-county football after a two-year sabbatical.

Murphy’s stellar contribution during the season was reflected in him collecting a fourth All-Star award on Friday night and being one of three players nominated for the Footballer of the Year accolade.

“That’s the plan [to continue playing],” the 36-year-old told Thomas Niblock shortly after receiving his award.

“We’ll go back to the drawing board, starting with the National League again, and see where we can go.

“We’ll be in Division One in the league and we’ll all be mad to compete in the Ulster Championship again.”

Murphy, who announced his unexpected retirement in November 2022 before reversing his decision in 2024 following the announcement of Jim McGuinness’ return as manager, said Donegal were disappointed with how they played in their All-Ireland defeat by Kerry in July.

“We didn’t perform in the final the way we wanted to perform,” he added.

“Do you ever park it? Even the ones you win, you always wonder could you have done something better.

“With time you reflect though that it’s been a decent year and you have to get back at it, put the head down.

“I was happy to give what I could give to the team but it still wasn’t enough at the end of the day.

“From a personal point of view I was lucky. The expectations I had were fairly low, could I do two, three, five minutes for the team, but it gradually built and built throughout the year.”