“I heard Friday night before the All-Ireland final that I was definitely staying on and I heard last Tuesday night when I finished Crokes training so I was retired! The notifications on Twitter, there was quite a number of them.”

However, he has yet to make a decision and Dr Crokes’ fortunes against Kenmare District in Sunday’s county final will not have an impact on his deliberations.

“If you are playing and winning, you are obviously in a better place. When you are making decisions like that, you have to take emotion out of it and think of the bigger picture.

“If Crokes win Sunday, you will be saying on Sunday evening, ‘sure I will give it another year, Kerry will win the All-Ireland. That is fairytale stuff.’

“You could get carried away with that sort of stuff but I think with the experience I have gained over the last number of years, you have to look at the overall picture and that would be important.”

Even if he did dislocate his shoulder in the Munster final and Kerry failed to make a third consecutive All-Ireland final, he looks back on the campaign with fonder memories than 2015, his comeback season following that cruciate injury.

“I was far happier than the year before. I enjoyed it a lot more. It didn’t finish the way we wanted it to finish, but it was more enjoyable for me. I found it hard the year before, to regain the form. This year the knee didn’t react in any way so that’s the positive.”

For all his worth to the county, Cooper has never lost sight of his insignificance in the grand scheme of Kerry football — “Kerry was fine before we ever came along and it will be fine after we move on.”

He has spoken briefly with Éamonn Fitzmaurice but they intend having a longer chat shortly.

“He was just checking in to see how the body was going into the county championship, matches and things like that. There was no big discussion about staying on. We kind of left it. I think he just wanted me to give me a bit of space to go out and enjoy my county championship football. “

Cooper can’t deny the All-Ireland semi-final loss to Dublin has been a motivating factor in his fine form for Crokes since then.

“I think it was a help. When I think back to some of the disappointments I’ve had with Kerry, whether losing a semi-final or final, the big thing for me was always going back with the club and going on a run, challenging for a county title, maybe further if you’re lucky. That has always been a pick-me-up.

“People say but the season is so long if you go to a Munster club final but I never gave out about it because those things don’t happen all the time. You just have to make the most of it. Me going back to a club that is highly competitive and successful has picked me up in a massive way.”

It’s no coincidence that Crokes’ first county final appearance since 2013 has been facilitated by the return of Cooper’s former team-mate and Kerry’s 2007 All-Ireland winning boss Pat O’Shea to the helm. “Things had gone so low from the point of view of Crokes for the last two years because we had set a very high standard and when you are not reaching county finals everything is a failure so Pat has come in and fellas have got hunger back.

“My first year playing with Crokes, Pat was still playing so I played in a full-forward line with himself, Connie Murphy — a combined age of I don’t know what! Now he has coached me with Kerry, this is his second spell with Crokes, we know each other really well. He’s demanding at times but that’s you want.”