Tyrone must plan without Canavan

Football news: Tyrone manager Mickey Harte yesterday laughed off the suggestion that Peter Canavan is ready to return for Sunday's Ulster championship opener against Derry at Clones. Instead the All-Ireland champions will be without their most influential forward and last year's captain until the "middle of June at the earliest".

Canavan sat out all of Tyrone's league campaign having undergone an operation on the ankle injury sustained in last year's championship. He has been back training on his own in recent weeks but any talk of his readiness to return is premature. The truth is he's hardly kicked a ball since the All-Ireland.

"I don't know if anyone really thinks we're playing some kind of game here," says Harte, "but we're not expecting anything from Peter until the middle of June, and if he comes back any earlier than that it will be a big bonus. But I can tell you he's not even remotely considered for this weekend.

"He's still not playing any football at all. He's doing a lot of training on his own and trying to incorporate some kicking of the ball, but he's still a long way from putting full pressure on the ankle. And he's put so much time and energy into getting it right that there's no way he's going to risk anything at this stage. He wants to make sure he's absolutely ready before he does come back, and won't go against anything the experts are telling him."

Harte takes some consolation in the knowledge that Canavan remains highly motivated for another championship, despite recently turning 33 and with 13 years of senior service already on the clock: "That's the most encouraging part," adds Harte, "that he took the time to have the operation and go through all the rehabilitation process. And the effort he's putting in on his own is exciting for all of us. He really means to be back there."

In the meantime Harte will select from a mostly healthy panel, perhaps naming his team after training this evening.

Ger Cavlan is the only real concern with a slight hamstring strain and while he won't start he could appear as a substitute if needed.

The injuries were kept down by missing Sunday's league final, yet Harte still has mixed feelings about not being there: "I still regret not making it, because it's not often you get the chance to win three titles in a row. Having said that, looking at the energy that was expended yesterday it might not have been ideal preparation for Sunday, in that I'm sure players would still be feeling the effects of a game like that."

"And despite the common knowledge that Derry are struggling with their form at the moment, Harte again raises a smile with the talk of an easy Tyrone win.

"That's fair enough, but it was exactly the same situation last year. They'd come out of the league needing to beat Longford for promotion, and that didn't happen. Then against us in Clones they could have had us buried with one more kick of the ball. So it's all very deja vu to me.

"I mean games between Derry and Tyrone always create a life of their own. It's easy for people to dismiss Derry because they haven't been seen to do much in the league. But just look at the team, players like Niall McCusker and Sean Marty Lockhart.

And Paul McFlynn and Fergal Doherty and Enda Muldoon and Paddy Bradley. They're all familiar names and you don't get that by being bad footballers. And that's the quality we're facing on Sunday."

Opposing manager Mickey Moran has also escaped major injury scares, and although Johnny McBride is carrying an elbow injury he is expected to start.

The retired Anthony Tohill will be the one big loss from the Derry team that drew with Tyrone in the quarter-final stage of Ulster last year - before being heavily defeated in the replay.