Tomás Ó Sé believes the GAA will have limited wriggle room if Covid-19 leads to matches being postponed during the upcoming All-Ireland championships but he believes counties will only pull out of competitions as a last resort.

On Friday, the GAA announced fixture details for the majority of the upcoming All-Ireland football and hurling championship games, which will be run off between October and late December.

Speaking to RTÉ Radio 1's Saturday Sport, Sunday Game analyst and former Kerry All-Ireland winner Ó Sé highlighted some potential concerns, which will depend on the public health situation amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

"As club players and inter-county players, we are amongst the community," he said.

"This Covid is flourishing and thriving in the community and when you look at a team, it's full of teachers, guards and accountants. 

"And the students are going back to college - I know they're not going back to college 100% and there will be a lot of stuff done online - but the vast majority of inter-county players will be involved on some level in their community working and that's the worry for managers, county boards and the GAA.

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"They're not really worried about the training. The training will be safe. It's what's coming into training and can they maintain that safety level. It's up to every individual county, which in turn will be up to every individual player to make sure they're safe."

Ó Sé also touched on the possibilities of matches being deferred and the impact that could have on the fixtures calendar in a condensed period of the year.

"The Ulster Ladies Club Championship was called off this morning, Nemo Rangers' game with Ballincollig here in Cork last week was called off and they're deferred," he said.

"The problem for the GAA is they don't have room to wriggle in terms of fixtures. If there is a deferral after the provincial championships, yes they can defer it a week or two if need be.

"But in Ulster, Leinster, in particular, and Connacht, there is no wriggle room. So if there is an issue, a team would have to be devastated with Covid for them to be thrown out and I think that's what [Director of club, player and games administration] Feargal McGill and the GAA were trying to get across yesterday with their rapid testing approach.

"It would have to be a very, very serious case for them to throw any county out of the Championship." 

Ó Sé added that, in his view, the GAA "handled it very well" in coming to their decision in a tight window.

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