Christian Doidge sends message to Hibs fans after injury lay-off is confirmed

Christian Doidge has reacted publicly for the first time since the Hibs striker was told he faces up to four months on the sidelines.

Christian Doidge has sent a message to fans after his period on the sidelines was confirmed

The Welshman suffered an injury during training ahead of Hibs’ 4-1 defeat by NK Rijeka in Croatia last week and was forced to sit out the second leg of Hibs’ Europa Conference League third-round qualifying tie.

Scans later revealed that the 28-year-old had sustained damage to his ankle and Achilles tendon in the training ground incident.

Doidge is now wearing a protective boot and using crutches and may not return to first-team reckoning until after the Scottish Premiership’s winter break.

The injury blow was compounded by the news he was in line for a first call-up to the Wales squad for September’s internationals, with the Welsh FA contacting Doidge’s representatives with a view to including him in the squad to face Belarus in Russia at the start of September.

Writing on social media Doidge said: “Thanks for all the messages of support this week, beyond gutted to be missing out on a big part of the season but already looking ahead to coming back.”

Doidge had scored twice in Hibs’ first two league matches against Motherwell and Ross County after missing a large chunk of pre-season with Covid-19.

He was confined to bed for the best part of a fortnight and only returned to action in the friendly against Raith Rovers for Iain Davidson’s testimonial match in mid-July.

A Hibs statement read: “We can confirm that Christian Doidge will be sidelined until at least December with an Achilles injury.

“Come back stronger, Doidgey.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by Coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our sports coverage with a digital sports subscription.