7.35am Sports News

Pauric Lodge is here with the sports news. And Pauric, you're starting with the retirement in Mayo GAA.

That's right, Sarah, good morning to you. It's pretty much retirement season feels like in the GAA at the moment, and Cillian O'Connor, the latest to announce that he is departing the intercounty scene at the age of thirty-four. The two-time All-Star from the Ballintubber club was part of the Mayo panel that won their first All-Ireland since 1951. He made the announcement in an interview with the Irish Examiner. And the Mayo manager, Andy Moran, has been praising really the role that he played this year, where he didn't get as much game time as he was used to in previous seasons. But he said that Cillian's importance to the group never diminished. He led quietly, advised young players, and supported the management and his teammates. He won back-to-back Young Footballer of the Year awards, seven Connacht titles, and two National League medals. So Cillian O'Connor retiring from the Mayo football team. The Republic of Ireland midfielder Jess Ziu has been ruled out of tomorrow's World Cup playoff semifinal against Kazakhstan in Astana, and she could also miss the second leg in Cork on Tuesday. The Leicester City player has had an ongoing issue with a shin injury according to Ireland boss Carol Anne Ward, and the condition has flared up again while on international duty. She remains with the squad, who are training right now, and will continue to receive treatment from the Ireland medical staff. And a reminder that that the game on C- in Cork on Tuesday night will be live here on RTÉ Radio 1 on an extended Inside Sport. Jessie Stapleton is in line to collect her twenty-first Irish cap tomorrow, and she's been talking about adjusting to being so far away from home after a ten-and-a-half-hour flight.

Well, first of all, we've only just got here. It's our first morning. So I think we have everything set in line from the performance staff and the medical staff. They have everything in order of what we need to be doing, what we need to be and when we should be having naps and what we should be doing. So I think everything's set out, and it's very clear what we need to do as players, and we buy into what the staff is saying 'cause they've been absolutely brilliant during the flight in having everything prepared for us. So yeah, I think as players, we just need to buy into what the staff is saying. We're all professional athletes, and we know what is right from wrong and what to put into our bodies and how we should feel and what we should eat and what we should do. Yeah, we do enjoy coffee. I think that's what a lot of professional footballers tap into to bond and to have chats with a cup of coffee in front of us. But yeah, I don't think we worry about putting any local delicacies into our body.

Yeah, it's a good approach, I think. That's, uh, Jessie Stapleton. The two-time major winner John Rahm is set to leave LIV Golf according to the Spaniard's lawyer. Rahm had reviewed the terms offered for the proposed relaunch of the breakaway series and determined them to be unacceptable to him. Avan Lee from New Zealand has been appointed as interim CEO of