Hibs welcome back star pair for Dundee United clash

Hibs should have Nicky Cadden back for tomorrow’s testing trip to Tannadice. And Thibault Klidje will be part of the squad to face Dundee United – after his first full week’s training in a month.

Cadden is the only specialist left wingback available to David Gray, who is coping with the loss of Jordan Obita – as well as central defender Rocky Bushiri and midfielder Miguel Chaiwa – to the Africa Cup of Nations. He hasn’t featured since last month’s 2-1 home loss to Celtic because of a calf strain.

Gray, happy to see club record signing Klidje making progress on returning from an ankle injury, also welcomes the return of Martin Boyle after sickness forced the stand-in skipper onto the bench for Monday night’s flat 1-0 loss to Rangers at Ibrox. Despite having his trio away at AFCON, then, the gaffer says he has options for taking on a United side who racked up a home win over Celtic on Wednesday night.

“It’s been a full week's training for Nicky Cadden, which is positive,” said Gray. “Another full week's training for Thibault, which is positive, because he's been sort of dipped in and out of training in the last couple of weeks.

“I think that’s a full week's training for the first time in a month, probably, after his ankle, so he'll benefit from that. Everybody else is all good.

“I was at the game Wednesday night, watching Dundee United against Celtic, and the threat they carry at set pieces, and the threat that's going to be off the back of a really good victory for Jim Goodwin’s side, that'll be a real difficult test for us going up there. But the full focus on trying to bounce back as quick as we can, and try and get three points

“I think what Jim said after the game, a real honest assessment of how the game went. I thought Celtic started the game well, missed chances that could have maybe put the game out of sight, with the chances they had.

“But credit to Dundee United, they came out second half and had a real go, and really forced Celtic to defend, and I think that's something we're going to face right from the start.

“Results maybe haven't been where Jim would have liked them to be, but performances have been good. So we’re expecting a real difficult game.“But we're also looking at an opportunity for us to go and react off Monday night, and I want to see that cutting edge that we didn't carry against Rangers. That’s something we worked on this week, and if we can get that, I think we're going to be a huge threat ourselves.”

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