Waterford captain James McGrath admits that the loss of experienced forward Paul Whyte leaves a massive void for them to fill.

McGrath has taken over the captain's armband from Whyte whose inter-county career is in doubt due to a persistent hip injury.

For the past number of years, Whyte has been the Déise talisman and has led from the front being their top scorer on a number of occasions.

And McGrath is in no doubt that Whyte will be missed for the Munster SFC clash against Tipperary tomorrow evening.

"He's almost irreplaceable in what he does for us," said McGrath. "We feel sorry for Paul at this moment in time. We'll have to knuckle down without him. No doubt he will be down on the sideline roaring instructions at us."

McGrath admitted that the Waterford defence will have their work cut out against a very good Tipperary forward line that impressed during the NFL campaign.

"If you look back at the National League, Tipperary's forward line was one of the most exciting. They definitely had a bit of freedom to play. They didn't have an out and out defensive structure.

"They like to supply ball into Michael (Quinlivan) and Conor (Sweeney). When you have two top quality forwards like that, there's no reason not to be putting ball into them. We will have to be very mindful of that. It's a huge task but we can only go out on the day and give everything we have."

Stay up-to-date with this weekend's football and hurling championship action on our Match Tracker where we will be bringing live updates and scores from around the grounds.

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