Sports journalist Declan Bogue has claimed in his weekly column with the Belfast Telegraph that Jim McGuinness asked Kevin Cassidy to return to the Donegal squad in 2012.
Cassidy was axed from the Donegal squad in 2011, for his contributions to a GAA book written by Bogue entitled 'This is our Year'.
McGuinness said Cassidy's revelations in the book had broken a confidentiality agreement within the squad - and he had contaminated the group.
McGuinness therefore felt he had no other option but to axe Cassidy from the squad.
However, Bogue revealed that McGuinness approached Cassidy to return to the squad in Easter 2012.
Bogue claimed that in an interview with Matt Cooper in 2012 - McGuinness admitted asking Cassidy to return - but didn't make this admission in his book Until Victory Always.
In an interview with Balls.ie Bogue said, "Jim McGuinness was willing to admit this. He didn't admit it in his book but he did say it in his interview with Matt Cooper. In Easter 2012, Jim McGuinness called to Kevin Cassidy's school, and asked Kevin Cassidy to return to the Donegal panel.
"I often see and laugh at these accounts of Jim McGuinness is so ruthless that he needed to get rid of Kevin Cassidy and put down a marker there.
"And even Jim's own reasoning now, that Kevin contaminated the group, I mean that's okay to say that, but if you're fully willing to take him back a few months later.