Scottish Cup: Graham Stack vows to put misery aside to help Hibs

The Easter Road keeper has been dealt the devastating news that he will miss the 19 May clash with Edinburgh derby rivals Hearts after tearing a thigh muscle in the weekend’s semi-final victory over Aberdeen.

The 30-year-old has established himself as Pat Fenlon’s number one, but will instead watch understudy Mark Brown take to the Hampden pitch for what should have been the biggest game of the Londoner’s career.

The former Arsenal and Plymouth Argyle goalie could be forgiven for not being his usual bubbly self after being dealt such a savage blow during the closing stages of Saturday’s 2-1 triumph over the Dons.

However, having won the sympathy of his team-mates upon their return to training yesterday, the former Republic of Ireland under-21 cap is adamant he will still try and play as big a role as he can in ensuring the men in green and white are prepared for what could be a defining moment in the club’s history next month.

He said: “To have had the opportunity to play in a Scottish Cup final – one of the biggest in the history of the tournament – taken away from me because of an injury like this is gutting. I can’t really describe or put into words how it feels.

“But I know I’ve got the full support of all the boys and all the staff at the club. I spoke to a lot of them on Tuesday and everyone is disappointed for me, as you naturally are when you see a team-mate get injured and miss a game like this.

“I’ll be with the boys on a day-to-day basis between now and the cup final and hopefully I’ll be able to join them for the celebrations afterwards.

“I definitely won’t be moping around in the coming weeks because I’m not involved. I’ll be playing as big a part as I ever have within the squad. I’m quite a vocal person around the place and I won’t be detached from it all just because I’m not playing.

“At the same time, of course I’ll be gutted, because any pro will tell you that you work hard in your career to reach an occasion like this and to be denied a chance to play because of something innocuous like a thigh injury is terrible.”

Stack’s injury, which is expected to rule him out for up to three months, will present Brown with the chance to write his name into the history books as a member of the line-up that ended Hibs’ 110-year wait for the Scottish Cup.

Stack added: “It’s probably a difficult one for Browny. Any goalie wants to be in the team on merit and he probably felt he should have been in the team anyway.

“There’s always that friendly rivalry there between goalkeepers, but he spoke to me on Saturday and said he wanted to play, but not under these circumstances.

“I’ve got the utmost respect for him. He’s a good goalie, who works incredibly hard.

“There will be part of me that will be a little bit jealous that it’s not me out there, but there are no doubts I will want him to play well on the day.

“I’ll be gutted not to be involved, but he’ll be there to do a job and there won’t be any hard feelings.”