Exclusive:Hibs injury news - midfielder's surgery comeback, skipper gets vital minutes as Gray preps for three-game week
Easter Road side facing Dundee, Motherwell and Celtic in space of eight days
Hibs have used the international break to bolster the number of first-team options available to David Gray, with important squad members taking major steps back to fitness – including a quick recovery from emergency surgery. But The Easter Road gaffer is still sweating over the availability of two proven impact subs ahead of Saturday’s home game against Dundee.
Club captain Joe Newell, who hasn’t featured for the first team in almost a year after undergoing abdominal surgery, was among those who featured in a bounce game against Dunfermline at East Mains during the break. He was joined in the behind-closed-doors fixture, played on the artificial surface at HTC, by Alasana Manneh, now fully recovered from a hamstring injury.
Club captain Joe Newell back in action
With Hibs heading into a hectic schedule of three games in just over a week, the need for strength in depth is obvious. With a handful of players having travelled far and played a lot of football during the international break, Gray is unlikely to lean too heavily on the same personnel against Dundee at home, Motherwell away on Tuesday night – and then Celtic at Easter Road on Sunday week.
Reporting that Dylan Levitt was back in training after recovering from surgery to remove his appendix, but adding Junior Hoilett – who enjoyed a brief outing as a late sub in Canada’s 0-0 draw with Ecuador –and Josh Campbell to his list of concerns, Gray said: “The bounce game against Dunfermline was really good, a really good exercise for everybody. We had to play it on the astro, which wasn't ideal, but it was a really good exercise.
“The weather was really wet and windy last week, the pitch was really soft. So for a more consistent surface we've got a really good astro here.
“We got the minutes into the boys who needed it, some really needed the 90 minutes, which they got. Plus Joe Newell and Alasana Manneh both got a good 60 minutes into them with no real reaction, so that’s another big step forward for them – and they’ve trained all this week, which certainly strengthens that area of the team.
Midfielder back after appendix op
“And Dylan Levitt’s back training, he's trained all week. He obviously didn't play in the game, he wasn't ready to play in the game at all, but he's back in training and trained this week, which is again positive for him.
“We do have bumps and bruises from international duty. So Junior Hoilett picked up a bit of a niggle when he was away, so we’ll just see how he is; he thinks he might be OK but wasn’t involved in the second game for Canada.
“Josh Campbell got a bit of an infection in his toe. So we're just hoping that he recovers pretty quickly. That is a bit of a random one, but when somebody stands on your toe and then all of a sudden it gets infected … and then because it's your big toe, that affects everything you do, basically.
“So we'll just see how he is as we get closer to the game. But everybody else should be okay.
“We now go into three games in a week – Saturday, Tuesday, Sunday – so everybody needs to be ready for that. And that was the importance of having the bounce game.
“It was about making sure everybody got minutes, and make sure that you get a little bit of time off to recharge the batteries. For the ones who haven’t played much, they needed to get a bank of minutes so that when called upon, they're ready to be the best version of themselves.
“We have picked up a few knocks and niggles, just within the group in general, a couple on international duty, and a couple that were here, have picked up a couple of impacts, but hopefully nothing too significant. We won't know that until later on in the week, but everybody came through all the games alright.”