Hibs without several key players for visit of Dundee

Hibs’ Head Coach Jack Ross will be without a number of key players for the visit of Dundee in the final game of the Betfred League Cup group B matches this afternoon.

Kyle Magennis misses out, having been forced to withdraw from the Scotland Under-21 squad with a hamstring injury and he joins Lewis Stevenson and Scott Allan on the sidelines.

Alex Gogic, Ofir Marciano and Ryan Porteous did make it away to represent their respective nations, while Christian Doidge is suspended leaving Ross with 17-players including youngsters.

Dundee are managed by former Hibs’ captain James McPake and include a number of experienced players including former Liverpool and Scotland international Charlie Adam.

Winner of the game will be guaranteed a seeded place in the last 16 unless the victory is from a penalty shoot out whilst the loser will still have enough points to qualify.

Should the game go to a penalty shoot out, only a Dundee victory would ensure a seeded place. If Hibs won their goal difference would be insufficient to overtake Ross County in the list of seeds.

Speaking at the pre-match press conference on Friday Ross said: “ I think James (McPake) has individual players of proven quality at a higher level throughout the squad. Some I am familiar with and some I know from their reputation.

“The Betfred League Cup game to date have been challenging for us because of the way they have fallen and the international break with players absent from the fixtures so we will continue to try and navigate ourselves through the group.

“This is the hardest game on paper in terms of the level of the opposition so we expect a difficult match but one that will afford us the opportunity to win the group and progress to the latter stages.

“We want to get back to winning ways as quickly as possible and this game gives us the best opportunity to do that.

“We are far from panicking but we want to get back to winning matches because in the main we have been doing that in recent months.

“We are not flush with numbers, probably about 17 including a couple of young players but as I’ve said we have managed to negotiate the group to date and hopefully we can do that again on Sunday.”