Hibs head coach David Gray has provided an injury update on several key players returning from injury.
Joe Newell (groin), Elie Youan (foot) and Marvin Ekpiteta (thigh) have all missed the start of 2025 due to their respective injuries – however, they are all on the mend and close to returning.
Hibs face St Mirren in Paisley tomorrow and speaking ahead of the trip Gray told Hibs TV: “Elie Youan, Joe Newell and Marvin Ekpiteta are all progressing”, Gray told Hibs TV.
“Elie is back on the grass, which is a real positive.
“Joe is getting stronger every week and we should get the rewards from him taking the extra week to recover.
“He is progressing nicely, he has itchy feet at the moment and is desperate to be back involved.
“Unfortunately, he won’t make it this weekend but hopefully he can be back involved next week.
“Marv is back training with the boys which is brilliant for him. He has done really well with his rehab over the last few months which is a real credit to him and the medical staff for getting him back as quickly and safely as possible.
“He has a lot of work still to do before he can be involved in squads at the moment, but it is a real positive to have him coming back and to add that strength in depth to our squad for the rest of the season.”
Another player who is working his way up to match fitness is new January signing, Alasana Manneh.
The central midfielder has been putting in the hard yards on the training pitch to get him up to full speed before he makes his First Team debut.
“Alasana has done really well. I mentioned that he wasn’t going to be ready for the Ayr United game last week, so we’ve taken that opportunity to get some more conditioning into him.
“He has been coming in from a winter break, so he is slightly behind in terms of fitness and intensity levels.
“He has done well this week, but with the game not being till Sunday, we will monitor him over the next few days. He has certainly given himself an opportunity to be involved this weekend with the hard work he has been doing.
“At the same time, we don’t want to push him too hard too quickly, but he is coming into our thinking as a potential for this weekend.”
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.
