Keith Higgins says news of Stephen Rochford’s decision to commit to the cause for 2019 was news to him and his Mayo teammates.
Reports on Tuesday claimed that the Crossmolina man has told the county board that he wants to stay on for next season.
Speculation has been rife that Rochford would walk away following their early exit from the All Ireland championship.
The loss to Kildare coupled with a backroom exodus that included the departures of Donie Buckley, Peter Burke and Tony McEntee all intensified speculation surrounding the manager’s position.
Jim McGuinness was linked to the post in media reports at the start of the week, but white smoke was seen in the form of an article in The Mayo News that confirmed Rochford would be staying.
Veteran Higgins admits he would be delighted with the news, but says the players know no more than what the media do at this point:
“I’d love to be able to give you a big exclusive and all that but honestly I just seen the headlines that he’s staying on, I knew the boys [Donie Buckley, Peter Burke and Tony McEntee] had gone which is no surprise really, they’d been there a good while apart from Tony, been there for two or three years.
“We need that consistency with Stephen there again, he’ll bring in a new backroom team and might freshen things up its only August yet, another couple of months of boys taking their minds off it might be a good thing and get back into it October, November time and see what next year brings.”
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