Former Hibs star rocked by season-ending injury on return to Leith as Easter Road loanee suffers a blow

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The devastating injury happened at Easter Road as a Hibs loanee requires ‘further investigation.’

A former Hibs star has suffered what is likely a season-ending injury on his return to Easter Road.

Motherwell were swept aside 3-1 by David Gray’s men in the Premiership last weekend. A concerning moment for them occurred in the first half when captain Paul McGinn went down in serious discomfort, on his first start since a muscle problem that ruled him out for months.

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It has been confirmed that he faces four months out injured and will effectively miss the rest of the season. McGinn featured at Easter Road between 2020-2022 before moving to ML1. Motherwell manager Stuart Kettlewell said: “Paul was devastated, we’re the same. As always we'll support Paul the best way we possibly can.

“We’ll all understand that looks like season over for Paul, which is really disappointing. He's been one of the, if not the, most consistent players since I came to the club a couple of years ago. He was made captain, he's just a big influence on everything we do on and off the pitch.

“Just because Paul generally trains and plays all the time. I know he's come back from a longer-term injury, but he's not really been used to it in his career. The fact that he's well over 500 games now would suggest he's been a robust player and somebody who’s always out there through thick or thin.

“There are players who can be unfortunate and have had lots and lots of injuries and they've had to brace themselves from an early age to be able to deal with that. From a personal point of view, I was someone who had pretty much one injury and that was the one that finished me at the age of 30. I'm not suggesting that for Paul.

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“But it's something you've never faced. We have to make sure there's a club and a group of people we get around about Paul and make sure that we help him along the way. I’ve seen him obviously in the last couple of days since it happened and he's a no-fuss guy. He's the type of guy who realises what's ahead of him and what he has to do and he'll not feel sorry for himself and will just get on with it.”

Motherwell also have current Hibs player Jair Tavares on loan, and he’s also picked up an injury problem. Kettlewell added amid plenty of fitness woes at Fir Park: “In terms of injuries this is possibly the worst stage that we're at.

“Jair Tavares had been for further investigation. He sustained an injury at the tail end of last week. It's significant injuries, and there'll be questions asked of myself and the club with that number of injuries. I understand that but I have to go over the point that we're very meticulous in what we do. Looking at the last check of the board the other day, we were looking at nine pretty serious injuries and nine players we are without.

“That's hard for us to absorb and from that you're looking at a lot of significant players and some players that have been very good for us. Some for a long period of time, some since they came to the football club. So it's not an excuse, it's just that on an injury front, it's a bleak outlook.

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“Me, as always, I'm the most positive person in the world. What we do is we start to focus on the players available and fit. That's what I've done since the start of the season and we look to kick-start this next part of the season.”

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