“A freak accident in training,” said Whittaker, who scored four points. “I think some lads were saying during the week on podcasts that it was a dead calf. Well, I can tell you it’s not just a dead calf. We’ve been driving up and down to oxygen chambers and all this craic, I think seven or eight times.”

According to McHugh, Whittaker went to extremes to put himself in a position to play.

“I think there’s a wee stream – not a magic stream! – beside the house, and over the course of two days, he was in it 13 times,” said McHugh. “That’s a man who really, really wants to play for the jersey.”

Next up for Westmeath is an All-Ireland SFC Round 1 clash with Cavan. Dublin, meanwhile, will attempt to bounce back when they host Louth.

Stand-in manager Dean Rock confirmed that they lost Peadar Ó Cofaigh Byrne to a shoulder injury but said Con O’Callaghan, Lee Gannon, Colm Basquel and Eoin Murchan could all be available to face Louth.

On why Dublin lost to Westmeath, he agreed with the suggestion that they ran out of gas in extra time.

“I think we showed massive resolve and resilience at the end of normal time to dig in and get it to extra time,” said Rock, deputising for suspended manager Ger Brennan.

“It wasn’t looking likely after 63 or 64 minutes and to be fair to them, they did claw it back but we just never got to the pitch of it at the start of extra time.

“The very first attack, the ball goes out over the sideline and from there, Westmeath just ran us into the ground to be fair to them. They were certainly full value for their victory.

“I think the dirty stuff…they won a lot of the breaking ball, the kick out battle, the ground battle. I don’t know the figures on it but it just seemed they were winning a little bit more breaking ball than us and were getting massive joy on the kick out side of it.

“Certainly there will be improvements needed from us there but ultimately there’s lots of facets of the game that we’ll look back on and be hugely disappointed with. But the lads just have to pick themselves up, as tough as it is because we have another game in two weeks. It’s a new competition and let’s see what that brings for them.”