ALL-IRELAND SFC:DECLAN O'SULLIVAN is set to return to the Kerry team for Sunday's third round qualifier against Monaghan.

Manager Pat O'Shea will select his starting 15 after training this evening, and while several changes are expected - and mostly all tactical after the Munster final collapse against Cork - the return of O'Sullivan is the most anticipated.

Despite missing that Munster final defeat because of a knee injury, O'Sullivan has carefully nursed himself back to full fitness and is almost certain to get one of the half forward positions for Sunday's game in Croke Park - the rematch of last year's quarter-final where Monaghan so nearly upset the All-Ireland championships, and where O'Sullivan's second-half goal proved so crucial.

O'Sullivan's whole season looked in some doubt back on June 15th when he first sustained the injury in the Munster semi-final win over Clare, the same game that featured the infamous Paul Galvin incident. He was stretchered off in the first half and it was initially feared he may have sustained the dreaded cruciate ligament tear, but escaped instead with only minor cartilage damage.

This still necessitated an operation for minor cartilage repair, but according to Kerry team trainer John Sugrue, O'Sullivan has made good progress since returning to the panel, and also in games with his club Dromid Pearses.

"Declan has been back training with us for the past 10 days, and back playing football in total for about two weeks now," said Sugrue.

"He has made good progress. He also played half a game for his club at the weekend. So the guy will figure on Sunday. He's fit to come in, but in contention to start as well."

O'Sullivan's absence was certainly felt in the Munster final (as was Galvin's) when Kerry's forward play effectively shut down, once Cork began to get a run at them. Kerry ended up losing by five points, despite leading by eight at half-time, and the return of last year's captain should be one of several alterations for Sunday.

There is strong speculation that Colm Cooper will be moved to centre forward, with Kieran Donaghy and this year's under-21 standout Tommy Walsh acting as a large and looming two-man full-forward line, as they have been doing in recent practice matches.

All three Ó Sé brothers are also in contention to start: Marc Ó Sé, who was red-carded in the Cork game, was subsequently cleared; Darragh Ó Sé was also dismissed in that game on two yellow cards, which means he is free to make what will be his 70th championship appearance for Kerry; and Tomás Ó Sé continues to act as team captain in the absence of Galvin.

Despite Galvin's enduring loss, Kerry are at least injury free as a panel: "We do more or less have a clean bill of health at this stage, thankfully," added Sugrue.

"Aidan O'Shea is the only one still ruled out long term with a broken collar bone, but we've known that for a while."

While Monaghan have been out for the past two weekends in succession to get this far, beating Derry and Donegal in the opening two rounds of the qualifier, Kerry will have had a four-week break since their Munster final defeat. According to Sugrue, this has been put to good use.

"We have a fair bit of work done since," he said. "We sat down after the Cork match, and planned all the training towards this next game. We couldn't look beyond it and we haven't. We have trained well and it has been quite productive so hopefully we'll get to show it on Sunday."

Kerry had an even longer lay-off going into last year's meeting, which was given as one of the reasons why they were so nearly undone. Monaghan dominated for long periods before O'Sullivan's goal finally swung things in Kerry's favour, thus maintaining Kerry's unbeaten streak against Monaghan in the championship. In the end Kerry won by the minimum: 1-12 to 1-11.

"It was definitely our sternest test last year," added Sugrue, "and we still know we were very lucky to get out of it. We won't need any reminder of that, so we certainly are very focused on the task at hand."

O'Sullivan went on to score another crucial goal in last year's semi-final win over Dublin, and his return for Sunday's game clearly strengthens Kerry's quest to make another quarter-final, as they have done every year since the format was introduced in 2001.