Hibs forward happy to be home as he details when Easter Road faithful will see him at his best

The ex-Fulham forward, 22, made the move to Easter Road back in August last year from the English Premier League side for significant transfer fee.

And although his minutes this term in the Scottish Premiership have been limited after suffering a serious hamstring injury in September, Scotland under-21 ace Bowie has shown already just how crucial he can be to Hibs’ hopes going forward. He’s scored three goals in 12 outings - with the most memorable a cracking last-gasp winner against Dundee United at Tannadice.

Hibs hitman Bowie reveals when supporters will see the best of him

Speaking ahead of the pre-split clash against Dundee, Bowie admitted that he is still trying to reach full fitness - and that it likely that he’ll only reach that after a full summer pre-season.

“I'm just trying to get back to full fitness,” he said. “I'm still not even there yet, so it'll probably be next season before I'm actually fully myself, but I'm just trying to do as best as I can. I've shown glimpses of what I can do, but to actually do that I need to build full fitness, but yeah, we'll get there.

“In training you can see I'm just a little bit... it's just like playing catch-up, isn't it? Because everyone else has had a pre-season and stuff, and I've not had that, and then I'm coming back and doing runs and stuff. But there's only so much you can do, especially when you're playing games every week. You can't really do runs generally, because you want to be fully recovered for the weekend.

“I think it's just I've played three or four games from the start, and then now it's sort of took its toll on me a little bit. So we're just trying to manage it, and then just building my way back up in training, and then hopefully get back on the team eventually.”

The forward has been carefully managed by Hibs since returning, and Bowie hailed how boss David Gray has ‘fed him’ back in slowly.

“He knew he didn't want to rush me back, so he just took a step back and just let me crack on,” he added. “And then when the physio said he gave the green light, I was sort of just ready to go, and he could start feeding me back in.”

Kirkcaldy-born Bowie being back home is helping as he juggles family life

Bowie has been just as busy away from Hibs as he has been trying to build his fitness at East Mains. He is loving being back in the Lang Toun with his twin daughters, Victoria and Florence, who turn two in June.

Making the move to Hibs was a career choice by the forward - who didn’t feel he would get a chance in the Fulham first team and was not likely to not catch the eye of Scotland national team boss Steve Clarke anytime soon by going out on loan to the lower reaches of the EFL. But being home near his family was also a big factor after penning a four-year deal which ends in 2028.

“It's good to be back at home,” Bowie said. “My parents are here, so for my partner and my two little girls, they're there all the time having sleepovers at my parents' house and stuff. So we didn't have that down there (in England). We were constantly parenting, so now we can sort of have nights to ourselves. So it's good to get a bit of a break sometimes.

“To be fair, my partner's very good. I don't know how she does it, honestly. I go home and they go to sleep a few hours after I'm home, and I'm knackered. So she does it for a full day, but yeah, credit to her. I mean, she does most of the work. Days off are like a full time job for me. It's actually harder than being in here (at East Mains). Yeah, just carnage now.”

High-flying Hibs have gone from ‘terrible’ to chasing European football

Hibs will be hoping to go into the split sitting third, and on the back of a record-breaking unbeaten run. Gray’s team have chalked up 16 matches without defeat and it really has been a start turnaround since the start of the season when relegation looked like a real possibility.

And Bowie - who missed out on Hibs’ shocking early-to-mid season run - says that even having the opportunity of being able to play European football next term is exciting.

"Obviously, at the start of the season, no one was thinking about that," he said. "Everyone was talking about us getting relegated and stuff like that, so to even have an opportunity of even being involved in that is definitely an ambition of everyone who's here.

"I mean, obviously, the start to the season, we started terribly, so it's good to see how well we're doing now. I mean, at the time I came back in the team, it was just like everything was going well at that point, so it was good to come back in and be involved in a winning team."