Laois hurling manager Eddie Brennan believes a resumption of GAA matches faces numerous challenges amid the Covid-19 pandemic, with a vaccine the only surefire measure to allay concerns of players and public alike.
The former Kilkenny star has frontline experience of the crisis due to his role with the gardaí and fears that necessary social distancing protocols could scupper any potential match programme.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio 1's Morning Ireland, Brennan said: "If I'm to be very, very honest at this point and from my own experiences of the last eight or nine weeks, I think we are staring down the barrel of a gun here, and I'm not sure we're going to see any championship action this year.
"I know there is a focus on trying to get the clubs back, but I think if you were to examine all the things that are going to have to happen for that to happen, the regulations that are going to be surrounding club matches even... there's so much involved and I think it's going to be very, very difficult."
The GAA's patient approach and non-committal stance on a return to live fare is one the 41-year-old fully endorses.
"I think the reason the GAA is holding off is because that one answer is definite - and that's no championship - the other one is that we're hoping against hope that there'll maybe be a vaccine.
"You just have to go with what the GAA is instructing."
A vaccine, if and when one becomes available, won't be an option until 2021 at the earliest, but Brennan also questioned whether players, despite engaging in maintenance regimes to keep their bodies ticking over, would be ready for the frenetic, full-blooded nature of championship action.
"I think it's very hard for a player to stay really on edge and massively motivated when you don't know whether you're coming or going," he concluded.
