With their championship starts only weeks away, both Armagh and Dublin have injury worries. The former's are the more serious with the confirmation that former All Star defender Francie Bellew has damaged his cruciate ligament and will miss the entire season.
Knee Dublin centrefielder Darren Magee is a possible absentee from the team's Leinster quarter-final against either Meath or Kildare, as further X-rays are required to determine the extent of a jaw injury.
Contacted as he was preparing for the arrival of the Armagh panel in La Manga for some warm-weather training, manager Joe Kernan lamented the latest setback in a season so far haunted by serious injuries.
"This is our fourth cruciate of the season," he said. "It happened to Francie in a club match two weeks ago and although we were concerned about it we didn't want word to get out until the doctors had confirmed the situation.
"It's terrible for him because he had been playing through the pain of a shoulder injury and we thought we could manage it with proper rest and recuperation."
The other players stricken with the knee injury are important forwards Brian Mallon and Ronan Clarke as well as up-and-coming defender JP Donnelly.
Bellew had been one of the Crossmaglen Rangers players unavailable to the county panel during most of the National League and the accumulated burden on Armagh was such that Kernan's team were nearly relegated to next season's Division Three, only rescuing Division Two status on the last day of regulation matches.
The Armagh manager said the injuries had been random accidents. "Brian's went on the first night of training last October and I was standing only 10 feet from him. At first he said he was okay but when the doctor had a look he was immediately worried that it was a cruciate.
"Losing Brian and Ronan was a big disappointment because this was to be the first year I had them free from college commitments."
Kernan is hopeful to have the pair back soon, although they will miss the opening championship match against Donegal on Sunday three weeks.
"They'll be back next week and we'll see how they're going but hopefully, they'll be fully fit a bit ahead of schedule."
The panel return to Ireland next week.
Meanwhile, Dublin selector David Billings says the extent of Magee's injury isn't yet clear.
"He got a belt in Kilmacud Crokes' match and had to be taken to hospital for an X-ray. It doesn't appear that anything's broken so it mightn't be as bad as we thought but there's a lot of swelling and he'll need another X-ray. He's still being assessed."
According to Billings, Dublin have been observing last autumn's congress decision to leave a four-week break between the conclusion of league campaigns and the start of championship.
"We've only trained once since April 8th when we played the last game against Kerry. There will have been a couple of rounds of the club championship in the meantime and we won't be back until next week."
