Kevin Ryan believes an early injury to Arron Graffin contributed to Antrim's woeful performance against Westmeath.

The game was scoreless when the wing back suffered a suspected dislocated kneecap which resulted in an eight-minute stoppage. When play resumed, Westmeath took complete control to run out emphatic 17-point winners and leave the Saffrons in danger of missing out on a Leinster SHC quarter-final place.

"It was obviously very obviously," the under-pressure Antrim manager told the Irish News.

"I didn't think at the time it would be, but it did, it knocked fellas back. We had a couple of wides, but we had them under serious pressure in that first five minutes. That never came again, but I wouldn't like to use it as an excuse.

"We didn't show up. Hopefully Arron is okay in some way, that's the biggest thing."

Ryan was at a loss to explain how could his team could lose so heavily after the boost of beating Laois seven days earlier.

"We've had a few lows and we thought we'd turned that corner," he said.

"Everything was good, feeling good, there was never a word of complacency or anything like that. It's just unexplainable how a lot of us didn't show up."

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