Laois hurling manager Eddie Brennan says that the GAA are 'staring down the barrel of a gun' as he fears there'll be no return to playing this year.
The Kilkenny legend reckons that it'll be 'very difficult' to return before a coronavirus vaccine is found, which isn't expected until 2021 at the earliest.
And while there's hope for a restart at club level during the summer and All-Ireland championships from October, Brennan fears the worst.
He told RTÉ Radio 1's Morning Ireland: "If I'm to be very, very honest at this point and from my own experiences of the last eight or nine weeks, I think we are staring down the barrel of a gun here, and I'm not sure we're going to see any championship action this year.
"I know there is a focus on trying to get the clubs back, but I think if you were to examine all the things that are going to have to happen for that to happen, the regulations that are going to be surrounding club matches even... there's so much involved and I think it's going to be very, very difficult.
Brennan has also backed the GAA's cautious approach in not rushing back to playing after the association advised inter-county teams to halt training and extended their shutdown to July 20.
He added: "I think the reason the GAA is holding off is because that one answer is definite - and that's no championship - the other one is that we're hoping against hope that there'll maybe be a vaccine.
"You just have to go with what the GAA is instructing."
