Former Carlow minor football star Brendan Murphy has signed a new contract with AFL side Sydney Swans.

Murphy, whose progress in Australia has been hampered by injury, has yet to play a first team game for the Swans and admitted he thought about returning home.

He told The Mirror: 'I've been offered a new contract and I've decided to take it.

'I'd never had an injury before I came out here to Sydney, but since then it feels like I'm lucky to last a week without picking up a new one.

'After a lot of thought, I realised that I wasn't willing to walk away just yet, and that after coming so close to making it I couldn't turn my back on the opportunity.

'I decided that there was no way I was going to home a failure, and that I would go back in and tell the club that I was not going to let this opportunity slip away.

'There are three games left to go this season, and I'm not ruling out the possibility that I may still make the breakthrough before the season's end.