“I stepped away to get myself right,” said Newman. “I’m back now, thankfully, and having a good pre-season so far. Once I’m injury-free and enjoying my football, the fitness comes fairly quickly. I had a couple of injuries that were just dragging on and I was playing on and on with them.

“Eventually, I just had to make the decision for myself. I had an operation on my ankle and there was an ongoing problem with my elbow as well.

“It was just the best decision to step away and get those right. I’m delighted I did it because I feel a lot fresher. It’s great to be back, particularly for days like Sunday, with the crowd that turned up and the cause that it was for.”

The Meath-Dublin game was

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“It’s the performance that you take away from it really,” he said. “We’re building and looking for consistency overall, that’s the main thing. Over the last few years we’ve been good and bad. We’ve mixed the good with the ugly so it’s just about getting consistent performances week in, week out. Obviously, our League campaign is seven weeks out of nine weeks so that’s really what we’re looking to do at the moment, to get that consistency and to play at a high level throughout.”

Simonstown attacker Sean Tobin is also back for Meath after missing the Championship. And boss Andy McEntee said Cillian O’Sullivan and Padraic Harnan should be available soon following injuries. But brothers Eamon and Joey Wallace look set for long-term lay-offs.

“The two Wallaces, one is getting shoulder reconstruction and the other is having a lot of hamstring trouble so they are not available to us at the moment,” said McEntee. “Padraic Harnan is due back in the country in the next week or so and he’ll be back with us. Padraic broke his leg in the summer in the States and he started a new job and part of that was being in New Zealand for four or five weeks.”

McEntee confirmed that Ruairi Ó Coileain and Ronan Jones remain unavailable.