Less than two months later and he was coming off the bench in the Leinster semi-final against the same opposition. After seeing renowned knee surgeon Dr Ray Moran, Morris was assured that the structure of the ligaments were solid enough not to require surgery at the moment. “Basically, I was told there's maybe a 40% chance players who go back with a grade 2 tear can fully rupture it,” said the PwC footballer of the month for June. “So that's the risk I'm playing with at the minute. It's probably a big enough risk. “But as I said, there's a 60% chance I won't do it. It is in the back of your mind at times. You just have to manage it as much as you can. I'm playing with a risk and I'm loving it at the minute, so it's great.” Morris was expected back on the field in eight weeks but returned in six. It involved “rehabbing three times a day, injections and stuff like that. And then the S&C work you have to do. “It's mad within even a week of not playing, how much you can lose a bit of match fitness. I think that was probably a thought in my mind and on the physios', to get back to that level of gameplay and stuff like that. It was so hard to go back to it.” A Leinster final was one carrot; the rules changes was another. “From a personal point of view, the new rules probably blended into my type of game. I think as a team as well, it probably suits us down to the ground. “Maybe the last couple of years we've been talking about breaking down the defences and things like that. Moving away from that type of style of defence has suited us, I think, as a group. That's probably helping us out a bit.” And then having a manager in Robbie Brennan who embraces spontaneity and creativity appeals to Morris’s style too. “Robbie gives you the freedom of the park. He wants you to go out and try these different things. “Look, if you make a few mistakes or turnovers, he's not going to hold a grudge about it. He wants to see them creative turnovers, as he calls them. He's probably had a good effect on my game, he's allowing me to go out and express myself a bit more. That's probably the impact Robbie's having on me.” Last Sunday week, Meath became the first team since Offaly in 1982 to defeat Dublin, Galway and Kerry in the one championship and yet they are outsiders again against Donegal on Sunday. Captain Eoghan Frayne has spoken before about Meath being inspired by being written off but Morris can understand. “Look, we’ve probably come from nothing really this year. “Donegal would have been probably the most consistent team in the country this year. We'll not look at the odds. We know the team we have. We know what we can do. It’s just about pulling it off in the day. “We'll just try and make it as difficult as possible as we can. Obviously, uncharted territories for us as a group, but we'll do our homework and as Robbie said we'll try and make them earn it.” Morris also corroborated Brennan’s anecdote that the players were quickly back to eating pizza after discovering Donegal were their semi-final opponents last Sunday week. “It literally was as simple as that. Just as the draw was on, the pizza was coming out and we hadn't eaten since maybe 12 o'clock that day so we were probably more focused on the pizza than the draw!” It's an interesting week for Morris’s father Gary, who works in Bundoran Golf Club, although his son isn’t looking to find out too many details about the banter this week. “I probably don't ask about it too much. I try to stay away from all that. I let him deal with it up there.”