During a senior football championship preview on Wednesday's OTB AM, former Mayo player David Brady asserted his belief that Stephen Cluxton has retired from Dublin.
The highly-regarded goalkeeper has not represented his county since last year's All-Ireland final and Brady believes that we will not see him in a Dublin jersey again.
Although there is little or nothing to suggest in the traditional sense that Stephen Cluxton has walked away, the Ballina native is adamant that something has transpired.
"Cluxton has done exactly was Stephen Cluxton was going to do," he suggested, the idea that the multiple All-Ireland winner would walk away without saying a word oddly fitting.
"To my mind, I don't see him being any part of the Dublin panel this year because, for all intents and purposes, the word on the street is that he's retired."
With Evan Comerford assuming the 'keeper's jersey in Cluxton's absence throughout the National League, Brady does not believe the evidence stacks up for a championship return.
"I've asked," Brady admitted, not naming who he has tried to clarify Cluxton's status with, "and I'm not saying I was told [because all I was told] was to feck off and mind my own business.
"Dessie [Farrell, Dublin manager] hasn't been in the media spotlight and these questions haven't been asked... [but] it is pure and utterly obvious.
"There is no way that you miss the whole entire league and all of a sudden you're back because you've been rested. Cluxton was never a man to rest."
That Cluxton has appeared in club games for Parnells during his county absence only heightens Brady's sense that something is up.
"This is not a very big puzzle," he suggested, "if you put all the pieces together."
After making his breakthrough with Dublin in 2001, Stephen Cluxton was a member of the All-Ireland winning team of 2011.
Having subsequently added seven more medals to his collection, Brady believes that such an unusual step away from the main stage would be in keeping with Cluxton and Dublin generally.
"I honestly do think that he has done it on his terms," he stated, "albeit probably the way Dublin would do it too - under the radar.
"It would be disappointing, but I honestly think something has happened."
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