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Hibs’ Head Coach Alan Stubbs is hoping that influential vice captain David Gray will be available for the games against Rangers on Saturday at Easter Road and then the Edinburgh derby on the 3rd January although he accepts that the former Manchester Unted defender will eventually require an operation.

Tomorrow’s game is likely to come too soon for on-loan Celtic midfielder Dylan McGeough however but the youngster is due to resume training in his bid to get fit for the second half of the season.

Speaking to Hibs TV, Stubbs said:”We are not too bad to be fair. We are monitoring David (Gray) who has had a stomach problem for the last 3 or 4 weeks so we are hoping to manage him through the next couple of games if possible and then he will have to go under the knife for an operation.

“Apart from that we are not in bad shape. Dylan (McGeough) is doing really well and we are hoping that he is going to start training towards the end of this week or at the least next week which is great news for us. He is chomping at the bit and we are actually trying to if anything hold him back a little bit.

“There are a couple of little aches and niggles from the game at the weekend but nothing that I think will cause too many problems.

“We have two fantastic games coming up (Rangers at home and Hearts at Tynecastle). They don’t come any bigger than that so we will treat each game on its merits.

“The first game, we need to take care of Rangers and get a really positive result which will set us up nicely to going to Tynecastle and hopefully another three points.

“The players have to believe in ther ability to win these games and at the moment the players very much do think that. They have a spring in their step and can see improvements on and off the pitch and its helped give them the confidence not to be afraid to make mistakes.”

There was some additional good news for Hibs’ fans as Congo striker Dominique Malonga is avalable for the Hearts game.

 

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John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.