Lee Johnson hopes a sweet and sour remedy will have Aiden McGeady back in the mix for Hibs before the World Cup break. The veteran winger has received sugar injections to help strengthen his damaged knee ligament.
But it’s the fact the 36-year-old is “as angry as ever” that convinces Johnson he’ll soon be able to call on the former Ireland international. The Hibs boss has put a timescale of four to six weeks on getting the veteran winger back up to speed. But he’s urged fans to be patient with Kevin Nisbet who, despite returning to light training, is still some way off a playing comeback from the ACL rupture he sustained in March.
Summer signing McGeady hasn’t featured since aggravating an old medial ligament injury in a friendly against Norwich. And Johnson said: “Aiden's had three sugar injections which stiffens the ligament and makes it stronger.
“What you then try and do is build up the tolerance levels and the mobility within the ligament, which he's doing. He's reacted very well to the sugar injections.
“Aiden's experienced enough to know his body and he'll know if he can come through it. What I will say is that he's as hungry and angry as ever.
“He was angry with his form in terms of knowing it wasn't quite right. He wants to play and he wants to play for Hibs. At his age there's always decisions to be made and the decision is to see if we can get him back flying in four-to-six weeks.”
Nisbet has been sidelined for six months since suffering the agonising ACL injury against Celtic at Easter Road. Assistant Jame McAllister revealed the Scotland international was back involved in light passing drills three weeks ago.
But with the Premiership heading into a five-week shutdown for the World Cup after November 13, Hibs fans can expect to wait until the festive period at least for the 25-year-old’s return. Johnson said: “It was all very controlled when he was out banging balls. We are acting with a level of precaution for him but as every box gets ticked we can start progressing.
“Soon he'll be working individually with the coaches and hopefully getting a bit more elasticity through the joint and the muscles. Once we tick those boxes with no set-backs he can be drip-fed into the first-team training.
“But it'll be after the international break. He'll be ready when he's ready. The target is to get him back as quickly as possible but it's got to be right. The re-occurrence rate does change dramatically from nine months to 12 months.
“I’m not saying you can't do things in those three months but you cannot expect a player with an ACL to be the same player he was nine months before.
“A year on they might be and 18 months on they could potentially be even better because of the work they've done in the gym, working their upper bodies. We've got to give him time and space to go and come back properly.”
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