This week's ESRI report into the impact of inter-county commitments on GAA players highlighted stark realities that exist in the game today.
Players can spend up to 31 hours of the week on senior county commitments according to the report, a lot of which can be spent on time travelling to and from group training sessions.
Speaking on this week's Off The Ball Saturday Panel, ESRI researcher Elish Kelly explained some of the obstacles that have taken their toll on the current inter-county player.
"We used the World Health Organisation mental well-being index to calculate these measures for players," she told Nathan Murphy.
"That's made up of five questions. On all five questions, inter-county players scored lower than the general population.
"The one that stood out the most was players not waking up the next day feeling fresh and rested. That was particularly low.
"One of the main findings in the report is that almost 50% aren't getting the recommended eight to 10 hours sleep. Not only does that impact on performance, but it's impacting on players mental well-being and the recovery.
"Sleep is often overlooked in terms of recovery mechanisms. There have been many means of improving player recovery that have been brought into the game to improve their performance, but here you have a natural remedy that is being overlooked.
"Sleep was just one aspect, but we found that there was more that was putting strain on the well-being of the player."
Players admitted they compromised personal relationships and personal hobbies in order to pursue inter-county commitments.
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