Galway will commence their National Hurling League campaign without the services of former All-Star Ollie Canning and his teenage brother Joe.
The Portumna pair have made themselves unavailable to Galway boss Ger Loughnane and have not been included in a 35-man squad announced by the Tribesmen.
It has emerged that Joe Canning attended one training session with the squad before Christmas, but neither he nor Ollie have come back to training since then.
Loughnane and his selectors Sean Treacy, Brendan Lynskey and Mike Murray have introduced a number of players who have been off the county squad in recent years with Rory Gantley, Diarmaid Cloonan, Mark Kerins and Fergal Moore returning.
