Hibs' Kevin Nisbet injury update as manager Jack Ross praises striker Christian Doidge

Hibs manager Jack Ross is keeping his fingers crossed that striker Kevin Nisbet will be back to full fitness in time for Saturday's league match against Dundee United.

Hibs boss Jack Ross recognises the value of strikers Christian Doidge (left) and Kevin Nisbet, who he hopes will recover from a muscle strain in time for Saturday's match against Dundee United. Photo by Paul Devlin / SNS Group

The 23-year-old, who has grabbed 11 goals already in his debut season for the Easter Road side, had to sit out Tuesday night’s Betfred Cup quarter-final victory over Alloa, with a minor injury niggle picked up in the triumph over Hamilton Accies, but is expected to be back in the fold this weekend.

“He has a slight muscle problem from the weekend,” revealed Ross, “and he did a little bit of training [on Monday] but was still feeling it a bit. Hopefully, he will be okay for Saturday because if he had been fully fit he would have played [against Alloa] but he said he wasn’t so we left him out.”

Strike partner Christian Doidge netted twice, albeit one was deflected home, in his absence and had chances to add at least another two or three. But, analysing the overall return from the Welshman, who ran up an impressive tally of 18 goals during last season’s curtailed campaign and has hit a bit of form, scoring in each of his last three games, his manager appears happy to accept that conversion rate.

“The thing about Christian is that when he wasn’t scoring he wasn’t missing either, if that makes sense,” explained Ross, who was happy to focus on the 28-year-old striker’s overall contribution and the fact that he had helped steer the Leith side into the semi-final of the Betfred Cup, at Hampden, next month.

“Even if you look at his record from last season, he was scoring but he was also missing chances. That’s just the kind of striker he is but he puts himself in great positions all the time and when the quality of our deliveries got better in the second half [against Alloa], that allowed him to make use of getting into those good positions.

“Yes, he missed opportunities but he took two of them and he has won the game for us so I'm delighted with him.”

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