Scotland striker takes giant leap towards Hibs comeback as gaffer exposes ace to training 'chaos' - EXCLUSIVE

Hibs star Kieron Bowie has taken a major leap on the road to recovery from hamstring surgery – after being thrown into the “chaos” of full-contact training with the first team. And the marquee summer signing could be ready for a return to competitive action before the end of the month.

The Scotland Under-21 forward has yet to start a game for Hibs since joining the Easter Road club in a £600,000 deal during the close season. The former Fulham and Raith Rovers prospect was working his way back from a recurring hamstring problem, being restricted to substitute appearances for David Gray’s team, as the rookie head coach took a slow-and-steady approach to a player who has declared his ambition to become the starting No. 9 for Steve Clarke’s senior national side.

Back in full training today - Bowie is closing in on a return. | SNS Group

But Bowie picked up a more serious injury after starting back-to-back games for Scott Gemmill’s 21s in September, limping out of a comfortable win over Malta – just four days after playing the best part of an hour against Spain – with a problem that later required surgery. The 22-year-old has impressed physios and medical experts with his diligence on the rehab trail.

And Gray revealed earlier today that his major summer acquisition had exposed to unrestricted training with the full squad this morning – a major step towards getting game time.

CHECK OUT THE LATEST FITBAW TALK ON SHOTS TV

The gaffer said: “With Kieron, the good thing is we're down to definitely weeks rather than months, definitely. He's fully joined in training this week, which is another big step forward for him.

Full contact

“That's gone from 10 days of part training to maximal testing, maximum load at the back end of last week, being cleared and ticked off from that point of view. But all that's done in quite a controlled environment, so now we've added him into a little bit of chaos in training.

“And he trained fully today. Full training, full contact training today.

“So again if you ask Kieron, he's just sitting there thinking: ‘Right, that’s me fit.’ I wouldn't put a game on it for his return because I don't think that's the right thing to do.

“The type of player he is, you could throw him into any game, because he's just that type of player. I'm hoping he's back and available for selection to some degree, not to start the game and play 90 minutes, before the end of the window, which is good.”

Bowie had impressed as an impact sub in extremely limited game time early in the season, scoring once - and capturing the imagination of supporters by a show of strength and skill before smashing a shot off the woodwork in a home loss to Celtic. Gray is eager to finally see the best of a player with the potential to become the focal point of his team’s attack.

“The biggest frustration was how we managed him up until that point when he got injured,” said the Hibs boss. “So it felt like we'd done everything we could to get him to the point ready to start.

CATCH UP WITH OUR LATEST HIBS TRANSFER BULLETIN HERE

“And then he did go away and start two games, which was probably the issue, but all the work he had done up until that point, how we managed him, it had been ideal. Because the temptation was always there to play him from the start.

“A lot of people were saying we could play Kieron this week. Are you going to play Kieron this week? And we always knew there was a plan for him because of his previous injury and the history with that.

“So it was a real frustrating one when we lost him. But it's allowed him to work on parts of his game now when he's been injured. So physically, he's in an even better condition, in terms of body fat, all that sort of stuff, he's in a real good place.

“The biggest miss has obviously been playing on the pitch and getting back into that. So hopefully, at the age he's at and everything about it, he's used this period as an area to work on other parts of his game. And there's no reason why he can't come back in a much stronger, better position than he was.”