All-Ireland winner James Skehill believes there may be as many as "three or four retirements" from the Galway panel after Saturday's defeat to Waterford.
After suffering a shock defeat to Dublin in the Leinster championship, Galway's year came to an abrupt end as Waterford came out on top with a score-line of 1-30 to 3-20.
Only a matter of months after he announced his own retirement from the panel, James Skehill, a member of the All-Ireland winning Galway team in 2017, believes a number of senior players will do likewise.
"The team and panel as a whole is in need of rejuvenation," he told OTB Sports. "It is in need of an injection of youth whereby we take some of these minors and integrate them into the team.
"We need to try and build a team not for today or tomorrow but for a couple of years time.
"I think if we keep going with the clientele we have at the moment we will probably get similar results as we had today.
"I think there's going to be a lot of soul-searching done and the guys on the team who have been there for 10, 12 years, they will probably look at their own situations.
"They'll look at the team and say, 'Am I going to put this much effort for 12 more months? Is there an All-Ireland in this team when you're facing the likes of Limerick?'
"I'd say there could be three or four retirements in Galway at this stage.
On a day that Joe Canning became the all-time leading scorer in championship hurling, Skehill admitted that he is not sure how long the 32-year-old talisman has left either.
"A big thing today was Joe thankfully got the record," he said, "it is a great feat for him and congratulations but I'm not sure how much time he has left in a Galway jersey."
Furthermore, after his second full season in charge Skehill now believes that Shane O'Neill will have questions to answer.
"The hurling fraternity [in Galway] are a proud bunch," he explained, "and you look at our record [over the last two years].
"The League means nothing, the Walsh Cup and any of those tournaments they have absolutely no effect on a managerial record whatsoever.
"Our record in the last two years is two championship wins in six games. We beat Wexford last year in the Leinster championship and beat Tipperary in a qualifier - we've lost every other game.
"That record is not good so I think there's going to be a review internally and I think even for Shane himself he will review [things] and say can he offer anymore travelling up from Limerick?
"Times are so difficult in the midst of COVID-19 all the time and he's got a young family as well, so, there's going to be a review both on the side of the management themselves and also internally within the County Board."
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