Meath will be without five first-team regulars for Sunday's Leinster SFC quarter-final against Wicklow.

Kevin Reilly (hip), Conor Gillespie (knee), Bryan Menton (hand), Mickey Newman (hand) and Shane O'Rourke (hand) will all sit out the championship opener at Pairc Tailteann.

Manager Mick O'Dowd admits that he doesn't know when Navan O'Mahonys talisman Reilly will finally put his longstanding injury woes behind him:

"He came back and played against Roscommon and the Down game but it stiffened up a lot and games were coming one after another," he tells The Irish Independent.

"So he didn't play against Cavan. He played the first round of the club championship but it stiffened up again. He knew that that wasn't really sustainable, playing a game and then spending a week to ten days kind of not being able to do anything.

"Kevin has given such service to Meath, he's such an incredible fella inside the Meath dressing room, it's as much hoping he can come back for himself.

"But in terms of us, I'd be kind of looking at him as a bonus if he was back playing rather than checking in before every game to see if he's right."

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