Meath boss Mick O'Dowd has hit back at Kildare counterpart Jason Ryan's criticism of Kevin Reilly's challenge on Paddy Brophy during the recent Leinster SFC semi-final.

The tackle, which wasn't deemed a foul by referee Rory Hickey and resulted in Brophy having to retire with a back injury, prompted Ryan to say: "It was a very strong hit and Kevin certainly put himself in there to make sure he was going to make an impact on Paddy."

But responding to Ryan's comments, O'Dowd is quoted in the Irish Examiner: "We lost a fella ourselves (Brian McMahon) after three minutes with concussion.

"We're all just focused on Dublin now and the great thing about the Meath-Dublin games anyway is you just get on with it and there's no whinging afterwards one way or another."

O'Dowd expects McMahon, team captain Reilly (knee) and Michael Newman (hamstring) to return from injury in time for Sunday week's Leinster final against the All-Ireland champions. Tweet

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