Aiden McGeady injury blow for Hibs as winger faces lengthy spell on sidelines

Hibs have suffered a major injury blow before the start of the Scottish Premiership season, with Aiden McGeady facing up to 12 weeks on the sidelines.

The 36-year-old was forced off after just 20 minutes of the Easter Road side’s pre-season friendly victory over Norwich City last weekend and manager Lee Johnson expressed hope that the winger wouldn’t be out of action for long.

But it has emerged that the former Sunderland and Celtic wideman has aggravated the medial ligament issue that kept him out of action for more than half of his final season at the Stadium of Light last year.

McGeady signed a one-year deal earlier this summer but may not kick a ball again until October – a further headache for Johnson who is without striker Kevin Nisbet until later this calendar year while captain Paul Hanlon, winger Demi Mitchell, defender Lewis Stevenson, and midfielder Jake Doyle-Hayes will all miss Saturday’s Scottish Premiership opener against St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park.

Branding the situation ‘disappointing’, Johnson added: "He's going to be out for a sustained period of time. It's hard to put a timescale on it but it's going to be minimum six weeks, although it probably averages about 10 weeks.

"I'm disappointed for Aiden; he's worked extremely hard to get back to a level of fitness that is capable of performing at Premiership level and unfortunately this has happened.

"It's not ideal but it's why you have a squad. Somebody else has got to fill that void on a leadership level and a performance level. We will do our best to recover him as quickly as possible."