“We just explained exactly where it was at; that the charge had been made and we would deal with it on Monday morning, and that’s still the case. I’d like to think that it didn’t get in on the guys.

"I certainly heard no chit-chat about it whatsoever. So I don’t think it derailed us in way, shape or form. Now, it’s going to give us plenty to exercise our minds in the next week, but not today.

“Could it possibly have been on his mind? Of course, it could. It would certainly be on mine if I was in his shoes.

“Nobody likes to have any kind of an accusation hanging over them. And these guys simply want to play hurling.

“The seriousness of a two-match ban, for any player, is horrendous.”

Asked if he was surprised when word came through of the ban, Ryan said: “Beyond surprised. It’s on our doorstep, we have to deal with it, there’s a process to deal with it, and we’ll just be looking that balance and fairness will be the order of the day when we make our case.”

Did he feel the punishment was too harsh?

“Well, I certainly didn’t think there was anything in it. It’s an incident that shouldn’t have happened and we’ll be just trying to do the best we can for our player. The proposed punishment does not fit the crime, in my opinion.”

Regarding yesterday’s defeat to Galway, Ryan said: “No, I can’t explain where it all went wrong. That was a complete no-show from us. We certainly weren’t prepared for that kind of a game — we weren’t prepared for any kind of a game with that kind of a performance. It was the worst performance we’ve had. We were just flat.

“Credit Galway. They were deserving winners by a country mile, as it was on the scoreboard.

“We looked way below where we’d like to be in several positions on the field.

“Does it leave question marks? We’ll have a good look at this to see where it leaves us in terms of where did it start, where did it stop.”

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