Westmeath manager Mark McHugh played down Luke Loughlin’s injury-enforced absence after his side outlasted Kildare to reach their first Leinster SFC final since 2016.

News of their talisman’s season-ending hamstring injury last Wednesday was widely-viewed as a fatal blow to the Lake County’s provincial hopes, but they dug deep to beat the Lilywhites 2-21 to 0-23 after extra-time and secure a place in the Sam Maguire in the process.

“We heard the word during the week that Luke had a bad injury, and it was disappointing,” the 2012 Donegal All-Ireland SFC winner told reporters in Tullamore.

“But when the news broke, people said ‘now Westmeath can’t win it.’ No disrespect to Luke and he knows this; he’s an amazing footballer and he’s a big part of our squad. But that’s an insult to a lot of players, that we’re a one-man team. Kerry’s not a one-man team and they’ve David Clifford. The collective has always been greater.”

He added: “We met this morning and we asked the question, ‘This day two weeks, do we want to be playing Dublin or do we want to be playing Leitrim?

“I know we didn’t get up from Division 3, but we put ourselves with that top tier in Ireland and we want to be playing the best teams. Kildare and Meath, these last few weeks, they’ve run us to the pin of our collar but I do think we were the better team in both games.”

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