Hogg ready when Hibs take on Motherwell

The Easter Road captain was forced off the pitch to have treatment on his wrist for several minutes in the weekend's 2-1 defeat to Hearts after a taking a heavy knock.

He returned to the pitch with the injury heavily padded and bandaged and played out the remainder of the game before being taken to hospital at the full-time whistle.

Scans showed there was no break and Hughes admitted that the news was a huge boost ahead of the trip to Fir Park on Wednesday.

He said: "The big fear at first was that he had broken something but he wanted to carry on.

"It was him saying to us that he was okay and that he could go back on so we put the padding on it, bandaged it up and, credit to him, he managed to last the rest of the game with it like that.

"It looked a real sore one at the time, but he went to hospital after the game on Saturday afternoon and it was just a deep cut on his wrist.

"He got five stitches and it is still very tender but he'll be determined to play and we're hoping that he will be okay for the Motherwell game. That's just the type of guy that he is, if there's any way that he can play, then he will – and that's the kind of attitude that we need from our players right now."

Hughes believes that his players' mental preparations this week are just as important as their physical training.

Hibs have lost their last six games and now need to win both of their remaining SPL matches – against Motherwell on Wednesday night and Dundee United on Sunday – to finish in fourth spot.

But Hughes knows that to do that, his players have to go into the last two games with the right attitude: "I have said to the players that if we are going to do this, they need to use all of the mind tools that they have at their disposal.

"Every single one of us knows exactly what is at stake. I know that we are more than capable of taking on sides and beating them when we are on top of our game.

"What the boys have given me this season already has been fantastic, but we need them to give absolutely everything that we have got in these last two games to get to where we all want to be."