Cian O'Neill has accused Dublin of cynical play after Kevin Feely took a heavy hit during Saturday night's Allianz Football League opener at Croke Park.

The Kildare midfielder was treated for a head injury early in the second half after Michael Darragh Macauley's knee appeared to catch him.

O'Neill believes the collision had a big bearing on the outcome, saying: "There's obviously a very strong correlation between when Kevin is commanding midfield and when we're performing strongly in games.

"It was quite cynical in terms of what happened. The impact was to his head when he was on the ground - maybe that's what the best teams do better than what we do. It's something we have to look at.

"When he got injured we went out of the game in midfield and that's when the goals came."

The Kildare manager clarified that a calf injury forced Feely to retire later in the game.

"To be fair, it wasn't his head, his calf was tightening. We moved him inside to see if we could get anything out of that. Ultimately he wasn't feeling good so we took him off.

"But you're right, he's such a big player for us. Every team has them, and it did impact us today unfortunately."

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