Good news on the injury front as Fenlon’s Hibs are on mend

By DAVID HARDIE
Published on 08/12/2012 12:01

HIBS star Gary Deegan is poised to hit the comeback trail more than nine weeks after having his jaw broken in an early morning incident outside a city centre nightspo.

The powerful midfielder has been pencilled in to face Celtic in Tuesday’s Under-20 match at Easter Road (kick-off 2 pm) and, if he should come through that game unscathed he’ll then be part of the squad for next weekend’s home clash with Motherwell.

Deegan has been out of action since being attacked in George Street on Sunday, October 7, after he and his team-mates had been celebrating Hibs going top of the SPL after defeating Dundee 3-0 the previous afternoon.

The 25-year-old required surgery on the injury which, according to Hibs manager Pat Fenlon, had left him feeling

“low and depressed” as he was forced to sit out Hibs next eight games as he recovered.

But now Deegan is ready to pull on a green and white shirt again with

Fenlon hoping his return signals the beginning of the end of a mini-injury crisis which has also seen him without

captain James McPake and fellow defender Tim Clancy in

recent weeks.

The Hibs boss said: “Gary has been back with the squad training and hopefully he’s going to play on Tuesday. The plan is to maybe get him 60 or 65 minutes in that, then he should be able to come back into the squad for next week’s game.”

Fenlon also revealed he

believes it won’t be too long before McPake, who has been nursing a back problem, and Clancy, who has had an operation on a groin injury, are also back in action. While again stressing he has no intention of rushing any of his crocks, he said: “James is making progress as well. The plan is to bring him into training on Monday or Tuesday. Tim is a little bit slower, he’s probably a couple of weeks away from getting into full training.”