Peter the Great ready to answer Tyrone’s call

BANG on target, Peter the Great is ready once more to enter the gladiator’s arena, to test defences and to be subjected to the most critical evaluation himself.

Tyrone's inspirational captain, now the proud holder of an All-Ireland senior football medal that so long threatened to elude him, is set to make his comeback after injury.

Tomorrow he will be on the bench for the champions in the Ulster SFC against Donegal in Clones, at last available for selection after nearly nine months of inactivity because of the ankle problem which all but ruled him out of the All-Ireland final victory.

As captain and the most recognisable face of Tyrone football, a very different sphere of activity was to unfold for him. Taking a career break from his teaching post (until next November), he embarked on a whirlwind series of functions and presentations and on a blanket tour of the schools with the Sam Maguire Cup.

"You could say that I was going non-stop since last September, but it did get tiring eventually. The novelty wore off at the approach of summer," he said.

He had his operation on January 20, shortly before the tragic death of Cormac McAnallen. The advice given to him was that the rehabilitation process would men he could not play any competitive games until mid-June. And, that's is more or less how it has worked out. An initial rest period of a month was followed by about six weeks of swimming and bike work in the gym before he was able to go running. Only in the last three or four weeks was he able to train with the team as such.

There was never a time when he questioned what he was doing, he said. "There are a lot of reasons why we want to do well this year, especially after what happened to Cormac. That's one of them, to try and prove a point. And there were lots of reasons why you want to get back in. I never really doubted why I was doing it."

Whatever about Tyrone wanting Canavan back, the view has been expressed that they need him.

"It hasn't been easy for Mickey (Harte) that way. Hopefully if we can get through this game we should have a stronger panel for the later games," he said.

Canavan feels the fact of being All-Ireland champions won't put Tyrone under more pressure than usual. "It's hard to quantify pressure. You know from Tyrone supporters that expectations were always very high anyway. There's always pressure on you every year you go out to play championship. But, I wouldn't think there's any extra pressure that wasn't there before."

Nevertheless, he believes that pressure of a different sort has come on the team since the confirmation earlier in the week that the Ulster final is going to be played in Croke Park. Canavan is not one bit happy with the way the matter has been handled.

I think it was unfair on Tyrone and Armagh in the first place for the Ulster Council to publish their intentions. Number one, it showed a disregard for the other competing counties in Ulster. Secondly for the teams that lose in the first round they'd be playing at a venue within six days and the venue wouldn't have been decided.

"I don't know why there was such a demand or such a hullabaloo about letting everybody know away back, five or six weeks ago, that the Ulster final was going to be in Croke Park.

"It was totally wrong and what it has done now is set Tyrone up, now that the final is going ahead in Croke Park because all along it was Tyrone and Armagh that was being talked about.

"I think it has given Donegal ammunition for tomorrow's match and that's totally unfair. I have no doubt that Brian McEniff will be telling the Donegal boys that it was promised for Tyrone and Armagh all along. They will have seen that in the papers themselves."

Either way, Canavan argues that Donegal have earned a lot of respect from their achievements over the last two years even if their form this year hasn't been that impressive. People might have been inclined towards the view that their appearance in the 2002 All-Ireland quarter-final was a one-off, but, he says, last year they demonstrated the quality in the side. "This year we know they're going to be hard to beat as well. Their forwards are as good as any in the country."

Canavan is looking to make his 40th Championship games for Tyrone since he made his debut in 1990. "Sitting on the bench is not the best of places to be, but at the same time it's a lot better than not being involved at all.

"I'm available. It just depends on how things go. Hopefully the rest of the boys will be in flying form and that there will not be the need for too many substitutions to be used. It will be the manager's choice. I'm there if needed."