GAELIC GAMES/PROFILE OF MAYO'S CIARAN McDONALD:If the Crossmolina man's days in the red and green prove to be really over, the game itself will be the biggest loser, writes Keith Duggan

NOTHING ABOUT the football life of Ciarán McDonald has been straightforward and in many ways it is apt the Crossmolina legend would choose to rage against the dying of the light. There was widespread regret when McDonald, aged 33 now, was not named on the Mayo championship squad last week, but few could deem the omission unreasonable.

McDonald had not started a Mayo championship match since the All-Ireland final of 2006 and his involvement with John O'Mahony's squad last year was fleeting, badly compromised by the persistent backache that has dogged the man in recent years.

His last appearance was as a late substitute in a dismal All-Ireland qualifier against Derry, curiously the very county against whom he made his debut in 1993. He has not been part of the squad at all this year.

For Mayo football people of a certain generation, the announcement of a Mayo panel without McDonald must have felt like a genuine end to their youth. All those from the age of 30 to 35 grew up with McDonald as their most celebrated peer.

Here was a thoroughly modernist football player with a persona that was arresting and authentic, a man who played in a manner uniquely of his own creation but also gloried in the traditional virtues of the game.

McDonald on song on a hot day in McHale Park was summer itself. He played football like Best played soccer, like Larry Bird played hoops, like Ayrton Senna raced cars, like John Troy played hurling. You might not always see him win but you walked away from the ground knowing you had seen something illuminating and rare, something different.

In Mayo, there seemed to be a vague belief McDonald would go on forever. It probably never occurred to anyone until last week he was just as mortal as the rest.

Perhaps it never occurred to McDonald himself. Given the Crossmolina man's long history of public reticence, with almost 13 years of gallant silence that suggested he would be happy to let the record speak for itself, his decision to "go running to the papers" this week was staggering. It was a bit like flicking on the television to find JD Salinger yapping on the Late Late Show.

McDonald gave his version of his omission from the panel in Wednesday's Irish Independent. It was clear from his comments he was deeply and honestly pained by his omission from the squad and, not for the first time, he had fears the Mayo public would believe he was indifferent to his county.

His account of communications with John O'Mahony suggested the lines between the pair were hazy at best. It didn't tally with the long-established form of O'Mahony, a man who has proven himself an exceptionally skilful communicator in the sporting as well as the political arenas.

Former Mayo players often chuckle at O'Mahony's seemingly clairvoyant ability to know their whereabouts at all times.

The Mayo manager has expressed his view on McDonald's ability many times in the past. But while football fans can afford to be sentimental, managers must, by necessity, be pathologically forward-thinking.

McDonald was not involved in this year's league but like a number of established senior men, he was in the minds of the management team. But in O'Mahony's mind there had to be a cut-off point in terms of the championship and McDonald's declining of an invitation to attend a challenge game was probably what prompted O'Mahony to draw the line in the sand.

As it was, O'Mahony was happy to clarify that the absence from McDonald was not a snub or an attempt to call time on the county days of a player whose legend will unquestionably bloom in the coming years and decades.

"It is not my intention to retire any player," he said yesterday. "This panel was put together based on players we had seen in the league and after we had invited a number of more senior players in for certain games we had organised. There came a time when names had to be put down on paper. I had to tell four of five guys they would be part of future Mayo panels but not this one.

"I have the highest admiration for Ciarán McDonald. And panels by their very nature are never set in stone. We will always be open to a player showing so well at club level that he deserves to be brought into the county panel and that will remain the case this summer."

O'Mahony's rationale is understandable and follows the normal procedure for finalising a championship panel. But nothing about the history of McDonald and Mayo has been normal.

The Crossmolina man has given 13 years of championship service that have been sometimes frustrating and frequently brilliant. But that passage has never been smooth. McDonald was an iconoclast and a fiercely independent soul trying to operate in a culture where the team ethic is everything. Over the years, his persona and importance became so powerful it was generally accepted the rules worked slightly differently where he was concerned.

He might not appear throughout entire leagues but rejoin panels late, and during those absences he was often more a rumour than a figure of substance in the county, a disappeared man performing feats of Herculean endeavour in the family pipe-laying trade in remote outposts of the county.

But when he did reappear, his hunger for training was considered absolute and his influence on the team immense and obvious. And the last word on McDonald, for all his idiosyncrasies, has always been that he is a likeable and decent person, a salt-of-the-earth type.

He has just been impossible to pin down.

The irony is that this release from the Mayo panel seems to have left McDonald feeling somewhat trapped. He operated beyond convention for so long that his shock at being omitted from a nominal panel was almost certainly heartfelt. And there is something almost innocent about his fears people would think he had decided against playing for the county.

For McDonald advocates, there is a glimmer of hope in that the Mayo panel contains one vacant place - contingent on a troublesome injury suffered by Chris Barrett. But whether McDonald would agree to return in the aftermath of this week's rare outburst is a different matter.

It could be that the public will never know anyway; even if O'Mahony does extend an olive branch, he will be too discreet to publicise it. And McDonald, having spoken, is likely to say nothing further on this matter.

In the past, O'Mahony was famed for his diplomatic handling of strong-minded players, and it could well be the pair will sit down in privacy. And nothing would better prove McDonald's stated desire to still turn out for his county than to agree to rejoin the squad under whatever conditions O'Mahony might impose.

In Mayo, they will wait with bated breath and no great hope. Here is a situation where two strong-minded men believe they are in the right. O'Mahony has an obligation to push on with getting Mayo ready for the big games ahead. McDonald will carry on in lone-spirit mode - he delivered a notable riposte against Ballaghaderreen in a league game last week, hitting four points from play in a personal haul of eight.

A summer of club fireworks for Crossmolina will mean the calls for his instatement will persist.

McDonald was almost wistful in his acknowledgement that the Mayo management might have decided to go with younger men. He understands better than anyone that there are very few seasons left and now, this one hangs by the thinnest of threads.

All anyone can say with certainty is that if Ciarán McDonald's Mayo football days are over, then the game itself will suffer most of all.