Clare have suffered a huge blow ahead of the 2020 season with the news that Gary Brennan has opted out of the football panel for the year.
The Clare Champion report that the captain informed the rest of the panel this week that he won't be available for the season.
Brennan has been at the heart of everything good the Clare footballers have achieved in recent years, and led them to the Allianz Football League Division 3 title at Croke Park in 2016.
Banner manager Colm Collins is already without a clutch of key players ahead of their defence of the McGrath Cup which begins against Limerick in December.
Jamie Malone is away travelling, Sean O'Donoghue has returned to the United States, while a knee injury rules Aaron Fitzgerald out of action.
Brennan is a PE teacher at St. Flannan's, but his reasons for stepping away from the panel are unknown at this stage.
Clare will again ply their trade in Division 2 of the Allianz Football League.
The summer will see Clare begin their Munster Football Championship with a quarter-final against Tipperary and the winners will face either Limerick or Waterford.
