Hibs news: Shaun Maloney drops team shake-up hint as injury situation is clarified

Hibs manager Shaun Maloney has hinted that he will put out a different team at Hampden to face Hearts in the Scottish Cup semi-final to the one he picked to line up at Tynecastle last weekend.

The Easter Road boss always leaves his final selection as late as possible and with one or two players carrying knocks, there may be one or two eleventh-hour changes before the meeting at the national stadium.

Hibs should find out on Friday if Christian Doidge will be available for selection but Maloney has a couple of other doubts in his squad, although Ryan Porteous is available with his four-game suspension not including cup matches.

Drey Wright, who scored after just five minutes in Gorgie before being forced off with an injury, appears unlikely to feature in Glasgow.

Ryan Porteous, left, is available while Paul McGinn is making progress

Maloney gave the attacker an outside chance of involvement but admitted he was ‘struggling’, adding: “I think he was our best player in the first 25, 30 minutes [at Tynecastle] and it shows what he brings to us.

“He was a big miss when he came off.”

Josh Doig is also touch and go for the last-four encounter but Rocky Bushiri is fit despite playing through an injury last weekend.

"Rocky took a knock and had a difficult period in the first half but big credit to him that he played through an injury to complete the minutes he did – he will be fit for Saturday,” Maloney added.

Paul McGinn and Demi Mitchell are making progress in their injury returns but the latter is still working his way back to full training and McGinn appears unlikely to be involved at Hampden.

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