Hibs manager Paul Heckingbottom has delivered an update on the injury progress of David Gray, Lewis Stevenson, Ryan Porteous and Vykintas Slivka.
The four Hibs men haven’t played a minute of League Cup action between them. They’ve all been struggling with various injury problems.
Now their boss has provided a positive update on each of them as they all aim to get back to full fitness.
Speaking to Hibs TV, Heckingbottom said: “Ryan Porteous still continues his training. He’s been back in with us a week now. Slivka came back in today (July 25).
“David saw a specialist so we need to make sure we give him a little bit of rest. He’ll hopefully be back in next week. It’s an injury where we’ll have to see how it reacts. Hopefully he’ll keep progressing and builds up to training fully and playing games.
“Lewis Stevenson’s had a real hard session so we’ll see how he reacts to that. If he reacts well we’ll progress him again and he might be in training in a week or so.”
Hibs will receive a big boost with the return of key stars
The loss of David Gray and Lewis Stevenson has been felt quite heavily. They bring a buzz and leadership to Heckingbottom’s starting XI.
Hibs have missed those key qualities whilst the two experienced full-backs have been on the sidelines.
Josh Vela is probably the only Hibee capable of playing the CDM role right now. With the return of Slivka though, the ex-Bolton man may have some cover.
Slivka isn’t a natural CDM, but he can do the job better than the likes of Scott Allan and Stephen Mallan. He also offers more experience than young prodigy Josh Campbell.
Porteous is needed to provide competition at the back. Hibs only have three senior centre-back options in Adam Jackson, Darren McGregor and Paul Hanlon right now.
The addition of the young centre-back would bring much needed cover to the squad and may even push some of the more senior pros to their limits. Porteous is good enough to start for most teams in the league.
The three central defenders at Hibs right now will need to play to their best to keep him out the squad.
Overall this is a positive update for Hibs. They’ll hope these stars make their returns sooner rather than later.