Mageean had got through to the final at the Kombank Arena as a fastest loser, but was determined to make a big impact.

The European outdoor bronze-medallist from Amsterdam last summer didn’t seem to be having difficulties early on, staying up with pace, constantly in sixth position.

However, Britain’s Laura Muir shook things up hugely by injecting a massive burst of pace barely 400m into the contest, shooting from last to first in one fell swoop on the back straight.

It stretched the field, and potentially stretched Mageean’s physical condition also, finding herself falling back in the final 500 metres, before the Irishwoman’s exit.

As Muir pulled away for victory in an emphatic winning time of 4 minutes, 2.39 seconds – smashing the 32-year-old Championship record set in 1985 by Doina Melinte, and marking a new British record also -two seconds behind was Germany’s Konstanze Klosterhalfen in a personal best of 4:04.45, with Poland’s Sofia Ennaoui third in 4:06.59.

Mageean explained afterwards that it was her “good” right foot – not the left one that was previously operated on – that caused her misery on this occasion.

She said: “I just want to go back and speak to my physio. Something’s hurting and I don’t know why I’m hurting.

“I felt fine with the pace and when picking up the pace, I was saying I needed to just stay in the game and stay out of danger.

“In past Championships, I’ve tried to be up in second or third. This time I was feeling fine, but I just seemed to lose power, and now something’s throbbing in my right foot.

“I’m worried that this is something to be concerned about, as it’s happened to my ‘good’ foot.

“My feet are normally a bit achey – there’s normally something whenever I’m running. Something gives, and I’m not sure what. I’ve been training well – everything had been going really well.”

John Travers’ advancement into the men’s 1500m final in Belgrade - caused by a rogue recall gun going off seconds into last night’s semi-final - saw the Donore Harriers athlete trailing home in eleventh, despite holding his own in sixth for a lot of the race.

Kalle Berglund of Sweden held a lot of the late initiative until twice 800m European champion Marcin Lewandowski overtook on the last lap’s back straight to earn a new crown – the third European title of his career, all of them different, and the second one that he has won indoors.

Lewandowski’s winning time of 3:44.82 was slower than the entire field’s season’s best, but was enough to take victory by three-quarters-of-a-second, ahead of Berglund in second (3:45.56) and Filip Sasínek of the Czech Republic in third (3:45.56).

Travers came home at the back in 11th place in 3:53.11 – he had finished seventh in the 2015 final in Prague.

The three-times Irish champion said afterwards: “I’m finding it hard to get any pleasure out of it right now.

“I’m happy I got through to the final obviously, but it’s not the way to get into a final. Two years ago I did it the right way, and I would much prefer to do it that way.

“There was always that question mark when I was going home last night when I was saying I’m not going to be in the final.

“I knew thanks to Patsy (McGonagle, Ireland team manager) that he was constantly onto them, and he didn’t hear until it was late, when they were closing the stadium that I finally got in.

“I think my mind was set leaving here that I wasn’t running, so it was great getting in, but I found it very hard to motivate myself this morning – I know people will laugh at that. But I had nothing left at the end of last night after going through all that rigmarole.”

Earlier, Phil Healy and Ciara Neville had qualified automatically for tomorrow’s 60m semi-finals with fourth-place finishes in 7.39 and 7.46 seconds respectively.

17-year-old Neville has already equalled the 2007 Irish record of 7.30 by Anna Boyle, with 22-year-old Healy coming one-hundredth of a second away.

Elsewhere, Pavel Maslak claimed his fifth major indoor title in a row – three European, two world – in the 400m with a world lead of 45.77 seconds.

Albania’s first ever European indoor medal would prove to be an astonishing gold. Izmir Smajlaj made it a bad night for returning Swedish champions of Europe - as like Loreen, Michel Torneus could not recapture previous continental glories in the long jump.

Smajlaj won on countback with a new national record 8.08 metres – his second mark of 8.02 edging out Torneus, whose best distance matched the Albanian’s.

Britain’s second gold of the night came via former world indoor champion Richard Kilty in the men’s 60m.

Floria Guei of France went from rescued false-start victim in the heats to eventual champion in the women’s 400m, as World Student Games champion Airine Palsyte cleared a lifetime best 2.01m to win the women’s high jump for Lithuania.

Ekaterini Stefanidi of Greece claimed the women’s pole vault, Kristin Gierisch of Germany was crowned women’s triple jump champion, and 19-year-old Pole Konrad Bukowiecki stormed to victory in the men’s shot put.