Exclusive:Hibs injury news as key player 'in full contention' to play against St Mirren in Paisley - latest bulletin
Plastic pitch at Livingston posed too great a risk for returning favourite
Hibs defender Warren O’Hora is “back in full contention” for a start against St Mirren in Paisley, according to David Gray. And the Easter Road gaffer revealed why he’d left the Irishman out of his match-day squad for the weekend draw with Livingston.
O’Hora is back in full-contact training after suffering a painful shoulder injury late in the recent 2-1 win over Aberdeen at Pittodrie. He was forced to sit out last midweek’s home loss to Rangers and, despite feeling fit and ready to go, was deemed too great a risk for Saturday’s 2-2 draw on the plastic pitch at Livi.
Gray, who provided more positive news on club captain Joe Newell’s return to football AND Alasana Manneh’s recovery from a hamstring injury, says O’Hora – who had been playing a crucial role in a back three beginning to click – is raring to go against the Buddies, revealing: “Warren’s a lot better now. So the decision at the weekend, that was the initial acute stage of his injury, which is a lot higher risk because of the risk of falling on it again, or just because it was an injury there.
Irish defender has been important to Hibs
“It was always a decision that we made for the Livi game, given the surface. If he’d fallen on it, that might have been a problem.
“I mean, if he’d fallen on it anywhere, it’d be sore, so I wouldn’t use that as an excuse. But it probably added to the risk factor of playing him against Livingston.
“Off the back of that, we just took the extra three or four days, knowing that you've got another full week before that. But he's trained all week, and he's feeling much better. So he's back in full contention for this weekend.”
Joe Newell long-term injury update
Newell hasn’t played since December last year and, having undergone abdominal surgery, has suffered a number of setbacks on the road to recovery. The plan is still for the club captain and fellow midfielder Manneh, who is working his way back from a hamstring injury, to play in a bounce game next week.
But Gray isn’t ruling out either or both featuring this weekend, saying: “Joe and Alasana have trained all week as well, so that's positive they've been in the group. We have organised a game in the international break, which obviously will massively suit them.
“But at the same time, they're both at the point now where they're safe enough to be involved, had we decided to do that. The issue is they've been out for a long time, so that's just something we'll have to see between now and evaluate between now and Friday, Saturday, with the game. But both are in a good place, both training well, and it's good to have them back.”
Rudi Molotnikov is still out with an ankle injury picked up on UEFA Youth League duty with Darren McGregor’s under-19s, while Dylan Levitt is recovering from appendix surgery. Gray revealed more on both.
“With Dylan, it happened very quickly,” he said. “He was complaining about pains in his stomach, and then from there, very quickly, he found himself needing a wee operation, which went well.
“He's resting in his house, because he can't do much clearly with that. Just now he needs to let that settle, but it’ll be after the international break anyway, before he'll be back in and around it.
“Rudi obviously had disappointing news with his ankle. He's out for a longer period, which isn't ideal for him. I’ve told him that hopefully that he gets all his injuries out as early as possible in his career, and then tries to kick on from there.”
Although Molotnikov started for McGregor’s youth side in the home leg of their champions path tie against FC 2 Korriku, Gray says he wouldn’t have been involved in yesterday’s away leg in Kosovo, saying: “He's a first team player, he's in the first team group all the time.”