Already without Jack McCaffrey and Eoin Murchan for this Sunday’s frustrating Croke Park stalemate with Roscommon, Dessie Farrell is now sweating on the fitness of full-back David Byrne and six-time All Star Ciarán Kilkenny.

With just a six-day turnaround, time is against the Dublin duo – especially Byrne who looked in considerable discomfort, pulling up suddenly after he was turned by Diarmuid Murtagh for an early goal chance saved by Stephen Cluxton. Kilkenny departed much later with a shoulder problem.

Afterwards, asked if Byrne’s injury was muscle-related or damage to his knee, Farrell replied: “Davy is a muscle, I think. Obviously we’ve our medical team running a battery of tests now at the minute, so we’ll know more later on this evening.”

He expressed the hope that neither injury will be overly serious but admitted: “I can’t say for sure at this point.” McCaffrey had been forced off in the Leinster final before half-time, but his manager hopes to have him “back in the mix next week”.

Meanwhile, after missing the entire season to date, he was delighted to see ‘keeper Evan Comerford “back on the pitch properly” in the past week.

Perhaps an even bigger concern for Farrell, however, was Dublin’s unconvincing performance against Roscommon, the first Division 1 outfit they have faced all year. The underdogs recovered from John Small’s 44th minute goal, bouncing back with two injury-time frees to force a deserved 1-11 to 0-14 draw.

Responding to the news that his team had been reinstalled as All-Ireland favourites in the past week, Farrell admitted: “We’ve had two decent performances all year, if we’re being frank about it. Maybe three.

“You know, operating in Division 2 doesn’t tell you an awful lot. The Leinster championship is very much a mixed bag, and today and more games like today will tell us where we’re really at, and make the bookies’ job a little bit easier, I’d imagine.”

Despite their late recovery to salvage a draw, Davy Burke expressed “huge disappointment” that Roscommon had failed to build on a dominant first half to end their 43-year run without a championship victory in Croke Park.

But the Roscommon boss suggested that the battle for top spot in Group 3 – securing direct passage to an All-Ireland quarter-final – may now come down to scoring difference, “depending on different results and who beats who. You imagine there will be a couple of people on three or five [points], it’ll all be very tight.

“This All-Ireland series looks like it’s going to be class, doesn’t it? Looking at it last night, looking at it today, it’s a great series.”

Roscommon fans leaving GAA Headquarters were still delighted to share the points with rivals who had hammered them at the Super 8s stage in 2018 and ’19, but their manager cautioned against taking Sligo for granted next Sunday.

“Jaysus, Kildare were expected to win in Markievicz a week ago and that didn’t go for them! We’ve very sore bodies. Donie Smith couldn’t move, we had our five subs used, and then he cramped up and couldn’t move for the last ten minutes,” he pointed out.

“Cian McKeon came off with cramp, Eddie Nolan’s first 70 minutes in 12 months, we’ve a lot of bodies that will be very sore this week, so it’ll be Hodson Bay lake tomorrow!

“And Sligo are lining us up back at home this weekend. That’s the way it works, isn’t it? We had a couple of weeks extra on Dublin, Sligo have a week extra on us, it’s all part of it.

“Look, we’re back in the Hyde, we expect to be very competitive against anybody in the Hyde,” Burke added. “If we get the bodies right – I don’t think we picked up any injuries there, just really sore, that’s all.”