I’m not sure if we will ever see another Mayo footballer achieve what Aidan O’Shea is set to do on Saturday against Leitrim.

Named to start in Páirc Seán in the Connacht SFC semi-final, the big man from Breaffy will make his 200th senior league and championship appearance for Mayo.

Not only is it a record for a Mayo player, but O’Shea will be, by our calculations, the first outfield player in the country to cross the 200 barrier.

Of course, Mayo’s management might make the decision to rest some players in the greatest foregone conclusion of a game Mayo have played in Connacht for quite some time. Good luck to Kevin McStay and Co if they decide to tell Aidan to sit this one out!

Because that’s one of many reasons why Aidan O’Shea is on the brink of 200 games. He always wants to play and has a great knack, touchwood, of rarely picking up serious injuries. Now, be in no doubt he has played through relatively minor injuries – I saw this first hand in Breaffy dressing rooms over the years. But the only significant injury I recall him picking up over the years was osteitis pubis in 2012.

It forced him to miss out on that year’s league semi-final and final and, much to his consternation, the Connacht semi-final win over Leitrim. O’Shea reckons he was fit for that game, but with the type of injury it was, James Horan, wisely, felt that game was one he need not rush back for, and Ballintubber’s Danny Geraghty was started in his stead.

Horan was proven right. Mayo won by 22 points, but it remains the only championship game since O’Shea’s championship debut against New York in 2009 that he has missed. It is an astonishing record and you can understand his annoyance at the only game he missed being one he felt he could have played in.

At club level, he has always put himself forward to play even when he shouldn’t. I vividly recall a starred league game against Garrymore eight days before the 2015 Connacht final against Sligo. Aidan was at the game and wore boots and a tracksuit on the sideline beside the togged subs. We assumed he was wearing the boots because of the heavy underfoot conditions.

Trailing by two points in the final five minutes, he came over to the management team, of which I was a member.

“Bring me on,” he insisted. Wasn’t he togged out underneath his tracksuit, ready for action if required. We gave it serious thought. It was a vital game and Aidan would quite likely have tipped the game in our favour. It was very tempting!

But we thought he would be in serious bother if he came on a week before a Connacht final. It was agreed it wasn’t in his best interests to come on. He wasn’t too impressed when we told him!

The willingness to make himself available and the avoidance of injury is one aspect of his appearance record but, of course, his talent is another.

He made his senior championship debut in his first year out of minor and was straightaway a focal point that year, scoring 3-5 in four championship games. Playing first year out of minor seems a throwback now, and that’s not even related to the change to Under 17. The only players, by my reckoning, to do it since O’Shea, were the O’Connor brothers, Cillian in 2011 and Diarmuid in 2014. It was a rare feat even before that and a real indicator of talent. Pearse Hanley and Ciarán McDonald are among the others to do it.

He made his league debut off the bench against Derry on 1st February 2009 in Ballina.

Over the years he has picked up three All-Stars with his versatility both a blessing and a curse. He has lined out in every central outfield position, including, famously, at full-back on Kieran Donaghy in the 2017 All-Ireland semi-finals. Over the years he has come to Mayo’s rescue time and time again in his 199 games.

How does 200 fare by Mayo standards?

Well, thanks to the terrific resource that is John Gunnigan’s results archive on the Mayo GAA Blog, we know he is out on his own for a Mayo player. Andy Moran finished with a very impressive 185 appearances. James Nallen had the record when he finished up in 2009 with 133 appearances.

Kevin McLoughlin hit 168, Keith Higgins finished on 166.

Of course it must be pointed out that new championship structures with qualifiers, group stages etc gives players more opportunities. James Nallen played one championship game in 1998 when Mayo were eliminated by Galway in their opening game.

Last year Aidan O’Shea played seven championship games without Mayo reaching the quarter-finals.

But when you consider the number of seasons O’Shea has played, the figures make sense. He is in his 17th season at this grade, the same as Moran when he called a halt in 2019 while James Nallen finished after 15 seasons.

Nationally, as far as we can work out, only Stephen Cluxton has played more league and championship games.

He has played 126 championship games and over 100 league games – exact data is not readily available, no central database exists. Seán Cavanagh finished on 196, Tomás Ó Sé on 179. Donegal’s Michael Murphy is heading towards 190 this summer. (Thanks to Colm Keys of the Irish Independent and Mick Foley of The Sunday Times for their assistance with these figures).

Aidan O’Shea is also second in championship games. If he plays tomorrow, it will be his 93rd senior championship game, only behind Cluxton. Clocking up the most championship games for any outfield player is a remarkable feat.

Cluxton’s figure is unlikely to ever be surpassed short of a seismic change in championship structures.

Some sense of the timespan O’Shea has been involved is evident from James Nallen. The two lined out together on O’Shea’s debut in New York in 2009. Born in 1973, Nallen made his championship debut in 1995, four days before O’Shea’s fifth birthday.

By comparison, Conal Dawson, who played with O’Shea against Sligo two weeks ago, wasn’t born until 2004. So the Breaffy man has played with players born over 30 years apart.

It seems highly unlikely that the Breaffy man will call it quits any time soon, either.

The new rules have reinvigorated him. He doesn’t have to worry about the opposition tactic in recent years of running him the length of the field tracking his man. Not having to cross the halfway line most of the time is a boon for many forwards, not least O’Shea.

He will be 35 in June and his importance to the Mayo team is still central.

He was voted Player of the Match by Mayo fans on the Mayo GAA Blog for Mayo’s last two games, the league final defeat to Kerry and the championship win over Sligo, scoring 1-5 from play across the two games.

Now, perhaps Mayo should not need a 35-year-old to be so central to their efforts, but it speaks volumes for his enduring commitment and quality.

People like Joe Brolly and plenty of keyboard warriors have regularly derided him for how Mayo have come up short in All-Ireland finals.

Brolly’s comments have been frequently nasty and personal, and, as often is the case in such situations, speak more about the person saying them than the subject of the poison pen.

O’Shea has risen above it all. He keeps on keeping on, committing himself wholeheartedly in every aspect of his life to the cause.

One of Mayo’s finest servants and long may that continue.