Hibs stalwart goes under knife as Marink Reedijk loses two defenders for Aberdeen away day test

Hibs will be without two defensive stalwarts as they head to Aberdeen in pursuit of their first Scottish Premiership win under Marink Reedijk. And the Dutch coach has reminded his men that they’re in a “rat race” as they look to climb off the foot of the table.

Revealing that both starting left back Adam Mayor and experienced Scotland centre-half Grant Hanley will miss the trip to Pittodrie, Hibs boss Reedijk said: "Yeah, Grant Hanley was operated on his thumb. This was a thing, like Grant is, he's a warrior. He thought it was no problem, but eventually when he had a look at his thumb, it was more urgent than it looked. So he had to be operated as soon as we could. It was not like that he had pain or something like this, but more for the use of the thumb.

Grant Hanley out after op

Hibernian's Grant Hanley during a William Hill Premiership match between Hibernian and Celtic at Easter Road | SNS Group

"And then we have Adam Mayor, who stepped out of training the day before yesterday and had some hamstring issues. So he's also out of the squad."

With Hibs fans still buzzing after Sunday’s spectacular Premier Sports Cup semi-final win over Hearts at Hampden, Reedijk has been working to refocus his players on the challenge of moving up the SPFL standings.

Derby win is ‘history’ now

Reflecting on the weekend win, he said: "The best thing for me is that we show that we can get a result in the way we play, that we can come back from one-nil down, that we can play beautiful football but also do the dirty work. That was important to see.

“However, it's history. Now we have to show we can do it for multiple matches and also can do this for a longer period of time.

“I think it's important if you get something like what we had on Sunday done, also to celebrate these things. Because we work hard and you can also party hard for an evening and then from that we need to focus towards Aberdeen.

"Because at the end of the day we are in a sort of rat race, game after game after game. The thing for me is that we do everything in the highest possible intensity, from training sessions to matches. Therefore, you also need to celebrate your beautiful victories sometimes, because otherwise it's also not right to do that.

"I'm never satisfied, so we need to keep pushing. You will face different opponents, different ways of playing, different moments in a season, different atmospheres in stadiums, different weather conditions sometimes.

"So we need to be ready for everything and try to build a certain consistency and a certain hunger to do every time. So if it is hard, so if it is someone else, that we have the same hunger for every match to win.

"That we believe that we can do this in the first place. But also have the hunger and the appetite to take them home."

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