Dessie Farrell admits James McCarthy and Con O'Callaghan face a race against a time to make the All-Ireland SFC semi-final against either Kerry or Mayo on July 10.
Both McCarthy and O'Callaghan missed this evening's 0-21 to 0-10 quarter-final victory against Cork at Croke Park, with both reportedly suffering hamstring injuries in the build-up.
After the game, however, Farrell wouldn't confirm the reports.
READ MORE: Dublin 0-21 Cork 0-10: Recap
"I'd prefer not to say if that's OK," he remarked. "But we're working hard to get them right."
Farrell admitted that their absence was a blow and that it impacted on his side - but he conceded that both were struggling to make the semi-final in two weeks time.
"Yeah, obviously it’s very disappointing for the lads themselves to miss out on today, and it had a huge impact on the team as well - captain and vice-captain and two rock solid players," said Farrell.
"So yeah, that was probably a factor in today’s overall performance for sure and for the next day; it’s part and parcel of the game at this level, injuries and you have to be resilient.
"There’s a level of acceptance around them as well, so it’s pretty much a race against time now, two weeks.
"To be picking up an injury now at this time of year is tough and we’re all hands on deck in terms of our medical staff in terms of trying to get the lads right."
The Dubs boss added: "Probably the four week lay-off didn't help, of course.
"We couldn't get to the pace of it in the way we would have liked. It’s just about the result, moving on, major step-up required.
"The first half obviously wasn’t what we would have wanted, we picked it up in the second half but probably the four-week lay-off didn’t help.
"It took us a while to shake the cobwebs but we strung some good passages of play together in the second half and we were a little bit better."
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