GAA:HE PROBABLY won't start their first game on Saturday evening but Joe Canning knows he'll play a crucial role in Galway's championship progress this summer, whether in Leinster or beyond. Galway are strong favourites to get past Westmeath in Mullingar, but after that things get more interesting – especially with Dublin waiting next in line.

Canning has not enjoyed a good year so far, missing most of Galway’s league campaign with a foot injury – while a minor hamstring injury is likely to keep him out of Saturday’s starting line-up, though more on precautionary grounds.

The problem with his foot – plantar fasciitis – is rare but stubborn: it comes on without much warning and yet is notoriously difficult to shake. Distance runners are particularly prone to it, especially if training on hard surfaces – and for Canning the most frustrating part is not really knowing just how good, or bad, his form really is.

“My performance in the last league game probably did me more good than bad,” he says. “It was probably six months since I played a match before that, and it does take a while to get back into it. That’s been the killing thing for the last couple of months.

“With plantar fasciitis any time you walk you’re aggravating it again. It was just a thing that had to heal over time. So I really don’t know how the form is, although if I’m bad, I’m bad and that’s the way it is. It’s a thing we’ll see during the summer whether I’m better or not. Only time will tell whether the rest has done me good or not, but it was more mentally hard to take, more mentally draining for the last couple of months.”

Canning may yet play some part against Westmeath, and in fact Westmeath manager Brian Hanley actually hopes he does. Hanley, who has won seven Galway senior hurling medals with Athenry, was a selector with the Galway under-21s when Canning featured, and reckons Canning will add extra excitement to Saturday’s game.

Elsewhere, Tipperary will this evening begin the defence of their All-Ireland Under-21 title with a difficult test against Waterford. They’ll have home advantage in Thurles, although the timing is hardly ideal given it comes just three days after the Tipperary seniors booked their place in the Munster semi-final with a hard-fought win over Cork.

Under-21 captain Noel McGrath featured prominently in that game and will play another central role this evening – and as if all that wasn’t demanding enough McGrath is also due to line out with his club, Loughmore-Castleiney, on Saturday evening in the Tipperary county championship. No wonder Tipperary manager Ken Hogan has questioned the timing of this evening’s game, and the pressure it puts on players like McGrath, especially as the next round won’t be played until July 20th, against Cork, with the Munster under-21 final itself not being played until August.

McGrath is the only senior Tipperary player who tasted action against Cork last Sunday, although forwards Paddy Murphy, Brian O’Meara and John O’Neill are also members of Declan Ryan’s senior panel – and the Tipperary team still boasts seven of the players who started against Galway in last year’s convincing All-Ireland final win.

Waterford are backboned by several players who won the provincial minor title two years ago, and also includes senior panellists Stephen O’Keeffe in goal, plus Noel Connors, Darragh Fives, Eamonn Murphy, Brian O’Sullivan and the Mahony brothers, Paudie and Philip, who captains the team. Their one notable absentee is Maurice Shanahan, who misses out as the plaster only came off his broken finger last week.

With the under-21 championship being the last of the old-school knockout competitions there won’t be much between the teams, except McGrath may well prove the difference.

TIPPERARY(under-21 v Waterford): P Ryan, C Hough, K O'Gorman, S Maher, B Stapleton, J Barry, P Heffernan, N McGrath, J Gallagher, S Curran, P Murphy, B O'Meara, J O'Dwyer, A Ryan, J O'Neill.

WATERFORD(under-21 v Tipperary): S O'Keeffe, J Barron, N Connors, P Prendergast, Philip Mahony, D Fives, S Daniels, S Roche, M O Neill, E Murphy, A Brophy, Pádraic Mahony, B O Sullivan, E Madigan, J Dillon.