Joe Canning will take his first steps into coaching as part of Fergal Healy's Galway minor hurling management team next season.
The five-time All-Star forward retired from inter-county hurling after the Tribesmen's All-Ireland SHC exit in July.
Speculation had grown that the 33-year-old might reconsider his decision after Henry Shefflin succeeded Shane O'Neill as Galway boss in October but today's announcement appears to make that an even more remote prospect.
"I'm stubborn enough. There's no return from me I'm afraid, that's the way it is," he told the Independent in August.
Canning will work alongside Mark Kerins, Eamon Cleary and Padraig Duddy under Craughwell man Healy, whose own Galway career ended a year after Canning's debut in 2008.
Healy succeeded Brian Hanley, who is now the county's U20 manager.
