Top scorer with 40 points during Clare’s four outings in this year’s championship, Duggan’s loss will certainly be felt in the Banner attack next year.

Clare GAA have yet to ratify their senior management for 2020, but Duggan has spoken with outgoing manager Donal Moloney and informed him of his decision.

“I’ve met up with Donal and we’re going to still be in contact. Donal has been fantastic, he said the door is always open. I don’t even know what way things will go, you know yourself when people have went travelling but it hasn’t ended up being the way they thought it would be, so who knows, that might happen with me, and I could end up coming home. Donal has been brilliant and he will always support me in whatever decision I make.”

At the conclusion of the 2017 campaign, Duggan did contemplate travelling for a year, but postponed the move.

“It was always going to be a very hard decision, but it was always in the back of my head. My whole family have spent most of their lives travelling, my Mam and Dad lived away for 13 years, my eldest brother James is living in China and was living in South Korea and London beforehand — he has been travelling for the past 10 years. Martin that hurls with me in Clooney is living in London eight years, Paul, my other brother, has been galavanting all around America and he is planning on moving over. It’s something that has always been in the family.”

When he does go to Australia, the 2013 All-Ireland medalist is hopeful of gaining enough experience to allow him to establish his own landscaping business when he returns to Ireland.

Playing inter-county now, there is a lot involved and the thought of being able to step away for a year and learn from experiences... I plan on starting my own business when I come back home in landscaping straight away, so being able to build up experience abroad, I’ve done a decent amount of it at home since I finished college in May and I’ve been working away in landscaping since.

“When I’m away I’ll be able to gain some invaluable experience that I wouldn’t be able to do at home.”

In May, Duggan concluded his studies in business and sports management at LIT. The subject matter of his thesis was on the retiring age of inter-county players, the average age for which he found to be between 27 and 28.

However, the 26-year-old believes the year away will extend his Clare career.

“I decided towards the end of this year to do it sooner rather than later. If I do it now and come back, I’ll have years left in me hurling, I’ll have it out of my system and I’ll be able to hurl into my 30s.

“But if I leave it off and do it at 29 or 30, by the time I get back, it will be too hard to get back into hurling at inter-county standard. My best bet at prolonging my career is by doing it at this age.”