Murphy's return 'not a difficult conversation'

Donegal manager Jim McGuinness confirmed "it wasn't a difficult conversation" to convince Michael Murphy to return to county colours for 2026.

The 36-year-old came out of a two-year retirement for the 2025 campaign and played a crucial role in Donegal's run to the All-Ireland final and Ulster title success.

Murphy has not played since the defeat by Kerry at Croke Park last July, but returned in the second half for his team's Division One win over the Kingdom in Ballyshannon on Sunday.

"He had a surgery after the final and we've been trying to manage him and build him up from that," McGuinness told reporters after the game.

"It's been a long enough road since that. He didn't manage to play for his club in the club championship, and he's been building up, so it's great to have him back on the pitch.

"He was looking forward to that today, to get some type of a run out, and hopefully we can build his minutes in the in the weeks and months ahead."

With two wins from their opening fixtures, the Donegal boss was satisfied with his team's work and felt there were "a lot of positives in the first half in particular".

It is still very early in the new season and McGuinness reiterated his stance that he will use the league to "develop depth within the squad".

With football taking a back seat next weekend, the Donegal boss has two weeks to prepare his side for a home game against Mayo and hopes to build on their winning start.

"There's things to work on to be honest, but at the same time, it felt sort of comfortable enough for most of it (against Kerry), he added.

"It gives us four points, which is the most important thing of all. We can sort of now start to look at different things and different scenarios and more game time for different people as well.

"It's the second league game and we will focus now on Mayo. That will be a really interesting game, and a really good challenge for us. It's a home game as well.

"We only have three home games so we will have to try and see can we make that one count as well."