LISTEN: Michael Murphy speaks openly about his lack of scores, his position and his injury

Michael Murphy gets asked these questions because he's Michael Murphy.

Even when he's playing well, two points from play in five games raises eyebrows because the whole of the country is used to the Donegal captain dominating matches and bullying defenders. They're used to watching on and thinking this man is the perfect footballer - perfectly designed for the modern day game. You couldn't even ask the question of who was better last summer: Diarmuid Connolly or Michael Murphy. For a lot of people - even Derry people - it wasn't a debate. https://twitter.com/canntoya/status/616355479019745280 But he's only human. His body can hurt, his confidence can suffer and his instincts can dull. On last week's GAA Hour podcast, Paul Galvin wondered if the same thing had happened to Murphy as what happened to the Kerry man - once a scoring corner forward. https://twitter.com/SportsJOEdotie/status/760176572242485248 So Murphy was on SportsJOE's GAA Hour football podcast this week and he answered a few questions that have been surrounding him in this campaign. The first off, was his form.

"I'm like any player - everybody wants to go out and kick 20 scores and catch 20 kickouts and make 20 turnovers and, on a perfect day, I want to go out and score as many as I can for the team and I haven't done that this year as much as I would've liked to have done," the Glenswilly man told SportsJOE's Colm Parkinson. "I'll just keep chipping away, there's no other means around it. "There could be merit there (in Paul Galvin's theory about his instincts being dulled) but it's not something I would've thought of myself. "Automatically when I go inside the 21', I know straight away the only thing I'm thinking is how I can be dangerous and how I can score. Sometimes, the way that teams are set up and the way that we play ourselves, on any given day you mightn't be afforded that opportunity a lot.  "You have to be patient and, when the opportunities come - it might only be twice or three times - you have to take them."

He hasn't taken as many as we've come to expect though. So he was asked straight out because everybody is talking about it - are you injured or not, Michael?

"Not at all," he replied. "People have said 'he's not moving well and he's not going well, he must be injured' but I'm grand. I had an ankle injury prior to the first round of Ulster but that has cleared up. I'm in full training and looking forward to getting out and dispel the myth."

What about the injections rumour to help with the injury? So what's the story? Is it the full forward line? Is it too tough to play in there now? Is it a waste of Michael Murphy? The player goes on to talk about his different roles in the team and how the whole strategy has changed under Rory Gallagher. https://soundcloud.com/sportsjoe-gaa-hour/michael-murphy-on-enjoying-the-game-duffys-flawed-proposal