Gary O'Connor's agent says Hibs return unlikely

Former Hibernian striker Garry O'Connor has teamed up again with former Easter Road fitness coach Dougie Fowler as he aims to get his career back on track.

Out-of-contract O'Connor, 28, has been pounding up and down the slopes of Arthur's Seat under Fowler's supervision in a bid to return to optimum fitness. "He knows there is no messing about now," Martin Reilly, the player's agent, said yesterday.

"He is not a young boy anymore. He knows he has to get a good pre-season under his belt. There have been a lot of mishaps in his career. But this is the first time in four years that he has been fit for pre-season. That is why he wants to get himself raring to go."

Fowler left Hibs after John Collins' departure as manager. He was brought to Easter Road by Bobby Williamson, and first worked with O'Connor then. "He (Fowler] is not working on Hibs' behalf now," noted Reilly.

Although the player has been training in sight of Easter Road, and message boards have been suggesting that O'Connor might be one of the two strikers Colin Calderwood is hoping to agree terms with, Reilly played down talk of a possible return to Hibs, with the Scotland cap's wage demands expected to be out of his old club's reach.

Earlier this summer O'Connor was also invited to train at Celtic by manager Neil Lennon, with whom he shares an agent, but a return to Scotland seems unlikely in view of his salary increase since signing for Russian club Lokomotiv Moscow from Hibs in 2006.

Instead, O'Connor hopes to follow up interest from clubs in England. His most recent stint south of the Border saw O'Connor turn out for Barnsley, where he scored four goals in 24 appearances for the Championship side after joining from Birmingham City.