DOWN boss Jim McCorry has confirmed that two players have left the county panel.
The Mournemen are set to face Derry at Celtic Park in their Ulster Championship quarter-final on June 7, but will have to prepare without the services of Warrenpoint's Ryan Mallon (below) and Niall Donnelly of Tullylish, who have left the panel on good terms, according to McCorry.
"Ryan Mallon has left the squad. He has a new job and it's a very demanding job that he is in," said McCorry.
"He asked just to stand down from the squad. Hopefully, things settle down and he may return at a later date, maybe next year, but obviously it's important for him in his career.
"He's in the legal profession and it's very, very demanding for him. There is no problem with that."
McCorry confirmed Mallon's decision was only taken last Friday, but that Donnelly had stood down in the wake of the NFL Division Two final defeat to Roscommon.
"The other (player to stand down) is Niall Donnelly," he said.
"Niall talked about leaving the squad earlier on in the year and stayed on for a while, but he had a lot of commitments coming up over the four-week period from the Division Two final and knew he wasn't able to commit to the training schedule and the matches we had.
"In fact, he was going to miss any challenge games.
"It wasn't giving him much of a chance to show before the Derry game, so Niall asked could he go back to his club just to try and get a wee bit of form back and a wee bit of playing time there and maybe be looked at at a later date as well."
McCorry stressed that the decisions of both players were fully respected by the Down management team and dismissed any notions of savage Down training regimes contributing to the decisions.
"The parting words to both players were that, if things settle down for them, they would still be considered next year again, absolutely," said McCorry.
"They were quite amicable conversations. There was no animosity.
"They (have stood down) for good reasons. Both players were very committed when they were there and that's just the type of players they are.
"Despite the rumours of seven days a week training schedules that some teams do and - at one stage I think they were talking about us doing that - we've been very understanding of the club scene in Down and people's careers and time and family and we try to minimise the time that they're away.
"They can train on their own as well but, when it comes Championship-time, obviously it's more important that people are together more.
"That's probably where they both feel that it's harder for them to do that, but career is very, very important for them and there's no reason why we would exclude them at any future date. They have stood down for very valid reasons and that's understandable."