Meath's four-time All-Ireland winning manager Sean Boylan says it's unrealistic to expect Tyrone to be at their best in Saturday week's All-Ireland SFC semi-final against Kerry.

The Ulster champions have been hit by a Covid-19 crisis — with the clash versus the Kingdom postponed for six days, although joint-manager Brian Dooher has said they "will struggle still to field a team" as half of the squad were unable to train this week.

There have been calls for the semi-final to be pushed back a further week to give Tyrone enough time to prepare for a crack at Kerry.

Boylan knows all too well the impact Covid-19 has on the body having spent almost a week in hospital with the deadly virus last year.

"It was the most frightening thing that ever happened to me in my life," the Dunboyne man said on RTÉ's The Championship Podcast.

"I'd be an old man compared to these lads, but when you get somebody that gets Covid properly it nearly destroys the natural vitality of youth - it wrecks them.

"Everybody thinks that they can go out in three or four days and play again - it's absolutely nonsensical.

"Because they're good athletes I could see them recovering in 10 days but I couldn't see them recovering in four or five days - not a hope in hell."

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