Canavan Jnr gets call from Harte to join Tyrone squad

TEENAGE sensation Darragh Canavan, son of the great Peter, has been called up to the Tyrone senior squad.

The talented 18-year-old has been tipped for greatness, following in the footsteps of his famous father, the man who captained the Red Hands to their first All-Ireland title in 2003. Remarkably, Canavan has yet to make his first championship start for his club, Errigal Ciaran, but has already been thrust into the world of inter-county football.

He could get his first opportunity to display his talents in the Dr McKenna Cup opener against Derry at Celtic Park this Thursday.

Canavan came to prominence last year when he scored a magnificent goal at Croke Park to help Tyrone to victory over Roscommon in the first All-Ireland U-17 football final.

It was only in the latter part of this season that he broke into the Errigal senior team, but he made an instant impact as they won a second successive Division One league title. Canavan was man of the match in the final, when he scored five points to help the holders defeat Omagh. He also captained his club to the Tyrone MFC title this year.

Tyrone have been granted an early start to the McKenna Cup as they’ll be on a team holiday in Thailand when the first round is scheduled on December 30. After their opening fixture against the Oak Leafers on Thursday, they will have a 17-day break ahead of their game against Ulster University in Omagh on January 6.

Mickey Harte has made it clear he is opposed to any moves to scrap the pre-season competitions as a means to further condense the inter-county season. “I’d like to think there would be some gap kept in the calendar for pre-season competitions, and perhaps other things could be condensed, that we might get part of the inter-county season closed earlier, and leave a better gap for club football.”