Channel Seven's Talking Footy will not return to TV screens when the AFL restarts.

Channel 7 has announced that their Monday Night footy show "Talking Footy" will not be returning in 2021.

The show was one of many sacrifices in 2020 as the global pandemic took over and the AFL headed into hubs for the season.

Channel 7 opted to remove both Talking Footy and Sunday morning program "Game Day" from its scheduling in 2020, with the former now ruled out of a return for this year.

Managing Director Lewis Martin confirmed the decision on SEN Breakfast this morning, but hinted the network had further plans in store for viewers.

“No (it won’t be back this year), but stand by for a couple of announcements because we’re certainly building into a pretty substantial footy magazine offering across the coverage, but not Talking Footy coming back, no,” Martin said.

The news comes off the back of lead commentator Bruce McAvaney's call to step away from pundit's box effective immediately.

McAvaney said yesterday on Channel 7 that he was looking forward to lessening his workload.

"I felt like I got to a stage in my career where I had to reduce my workload.

"I'm going to miss it enormously, I just visualise when Richmond and Carlton run out there in round one and the ball is bounced I'm going to climb a wall somewhere.

"I'm going to have to move on and just be a fan like everyone else."

McAvaney won't be lost to the Seven Network or our screens though, as he plans on calling the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and continuing his broadcasting of Seven's horse racing coverage.

"(It's) certainly not anything close to retirement, it's just a new phase where I cut back slightly and anything I'm asked to do at Seven I'm going to do with the same enthusiasm and commitment."