Loughnane confirms teenage star Canning returning to fold

GOOD news for Galway hurling fans after yesterday’s demolition of All-Ireland runners-up Limerick in the Gaelic Grounds.

With a National League semi-final place now secure, the Tribesmen will be reinforced with six players from All-Ireland club champions Portumna, included among them teenage star Joe Canning.

“I’ll just be straight honest with you lads,” said manager Ger Loughnane following yesterday’s win. “The story is we invited six Portumna lads onto the panel; everybody that is brought into the Galway panel this year, they have been brought in for a chat beforehand.

“Ollie is taking a bit of time to consider whether he will come back or not because it’s a very big decision for him (the former multiple All-Star corner-back, though still only 31 now, retired over a year ago). It’s a very big chance for him to take. ‘Will I go back? Will I get on the team? If I do, is my pace gone?’ He has to weigh up all that before he does come back.

“We had all the other fellas in — Kevin Hayes, Damien Hayes, Eoin Lynch, Andy Smith and Joe (Canning). We had all those in and had a chat with those so they will all be back next weekend.”

So Joe Canning will be in? “Oh yeah,” Ger confirmed, “Joe will be back in. They’re all back next weekend. When you put all those back in, the fellas that were out today — when you put all those fellas back into the mix you’d hope to build up a very strong panel.

“There’s three weeks to the semi-final and in that three weeks we’ll have the likes of Fergal Moore and we’ll have Alan Kerins and we’ll have the Portumna lads. We’ll have all those back in contention for the semi-final.”