Kerry boss Jack O'Connor says that he does not know whether veterans Tommy Griffin, Tom O'Sullivan and Mike McCarthy will retire.
O'Connor recently signed a deal to remain as Kerry senior football manager for a further three years, but admitted that he had not spoken to the players about availability whilst his own future was undecided.
"I have spoken to very few players because my tenure was up so there was no point," he said.
"What needed to happen was that these fellas needed to step back from it a bit and just taste life outside of football to get the appetite back. I think a few of them went to Rose of Tralee this year and they hadn't gone for six of seven years," he continued.
"Then come January or February, they can make a decision based on what they have seen over the previous four or five months."
O'Connor admitted the defeat to Down in the All-Ireland quarter-final was a shock, but insisted that, after a period of reflection, he was ready to continue his tenure as Kingdom boss.
"It was a tough enough decision, to be honest," O'Connor told Radio Kerry.
"When you are going into an All-Ireland quarter final, and on the road as long as we were, you don't contemplate defeat. It was like a bolt out of the blue, and it was very difficult for a couple of weeks.
"But time is a great healer and once we thawed out a small bit after those couple of weeks, there is always hope and after that period, I was beginning to think favourably of it again."