He marvels at how quickly the mileage clocks up. Last weekend Ciaran O'Sullivan left his home in the Cork suburb of Douglas and drove the 80 miles to line out for his home club, Urhan. Then he showered and hit the road again, taking in the early evening hurling scores and the feverish clamour from the English soccer games. It was just an average weekend.

"Sure, you get tired. I'm a married man with a six-month child now and increasingly you hear that Gaelic games are for young, single men. Undoubtedly, the commitment is huge, but I still enjoy it as much as when I first lined out for Cork."

O'Sullivan has been a constant on the Cork senior football scene since earning a championship debut against Clare in 1993. He was carefree, just glad to be part of a side which seemed to be on the cusp of engineering a long-term revival.

They took Munster to muted celebration that year - the county had, after all, overshadowed everybody on their way to back-to-back titles at the turn of the decade - and, predictably, returned to another All-Ireland. Derry were the opponents, the latest in a series of Ulster upstarts intent on assaulting the capital in September. O'Sullivan was wing back for Cork. "My strongest memory of that day is of Joe Kavanagh's goal, absolutely fantastic. It seemed to give us the perfect start. And then, of course, Tony Davis was sent off very harshly and we were struggling from there. It just slipped away. And that's the strange thing: there I was playing my first real season for Cork and into an All-Ireland final. I don't think I ever took that lightly, I mean Cork teams never achieved success too easily."

But at the same time, he says, he wouldn't have liked to have been told that he'd still be waiting for a return six years down the road.

But that's how it's been. After Cork went crashing last summer, O'Sullivan noticed a burdensome stiffening in his lower back. Took a trip to the GP who sent him off to see specialists. All those seasons had aggravated discs in his lower back and winter football was crossed off.

Instead, he spent the winter exercising in one of the fitness mausoleums which border most major cities nowadays.

"I was surprised, I thought they'd tell me to put the feet up," he laughs. "But no, it was a lot of cycling, rowing, very specific exercises and a general fitness routine designed to gradually build the back muscles up. How good it is I can't say, but it just won't get any better."

That he didn't have a tangible option made the reality of missing league football (for the first time) easier to bear but he made a point of travelling to training at least once a week, standing in the drizzle with team manager Larry Tompkins, observing the time-old ritual.

"Larry knew from the start that I had to opt out and he was supportive. To play would have jeopardised my chances of playing in the championship. So even though I was out, I stayed in touch with the lads and yes, it's nice to be back."

O'Sullivan made his return against Armagh, coming on as a substitute to nail two points from play. All the old soothing plaudits oozed from the crowd, but he himself was frustrated.

"I felt we deserved something from the game as a team. And then the next match, we went up to Dungannon and were atrocious against Tyrone. I just can't explain it, one of those days. That was a long trip home, I can tell you. But that's the way of it."

And yet Cork still have much to play for in the league. Tomorrow, Dublin, sparkling throughout the leaden days, come to Cork.

"It's a big game, yes, but for both teams. Dublin need a result just as much as us despite the fact that they have been very consistent throughout the league."

He finds himself keen for games again, found the winter lay-off more more tedious than it might have been. Tompkins, he says, laid out his philosophy for the year in fairly simple terms.

"Well, we simply want to win as many games as possible. Naturally, we are keen to advance to the play-offs and winning a National League is something we would cherish. Winning any competition nowadays is so tough, the standard has evened out to such a degree. And I mean, ultimately, this Cork team wants to win an All-Ireland. I don't think it's vain to say that, it's the reason that every side enters the championship."

Defeat tomorrow would severely dent Cork's hopes of getting some play-off action but the notion of a poor result doesn't faze O'Sullivan unduly.

"These days are about learning. These are the kind of games you need to value, you need to start winning them. Some results went with us before Christmas, recently we have had a few poor days. We'll know a bit more about ourselves by tomorrow evening and go on from there."