Hibernian manager Lee Johnson tonight admitted that Rocky Bushiri could have suffered a serious injury at the end of his side’s painful 3-0 fourth round defeat to Hearts in the Scottish Cup at Easter Road.
Centre half Bushiri received medical treatment at the side of the pitch after Toby Sibbick had put the Tynecastle club three ahead in the sixth minute of injury time this afternoon before being replaced by Paul Hanlon.
Johnson, who is resigned to losing Scotland internationalist Ryan Porteous during the January transfer window, confessed the Belgian defender may be facing a lengthy spell on the sidelines as a result of his challenge on Cammy Devlin.
"It looks like a bad one, if I'm honest with you,” he said. “Touch wood he hasn't broken his leg, but it certainly looked like that from the challenge."
Porteous has been linked with Blackburn Rovers, Udinese and Watford in recent days – but Johnson stressed he was unsure if the centre half had played his last game for Hibs.
"I honestly don't know,” he said. “I'm in a position where I haven't got the full facts because I've been concentrating on the game and to be fair so has Ryan.
"He's been brilliant in terms of his application and I thought again he was very good against Hearts.
"At the moment, I couldn't give you a definitive answer on it. I think potentially, but he could be here next week or the week after. Who knows?"
Johnson, whose team lost 3-0 to Hearts at Tynecastle in the cinch Premiership earlier at the start of this month, felt that his team had paid the price for their sloppy defending at the back and lack of a cutting edge up front in the Edinburgh derby encounter.
Hibs dominated possession and had more shots on goal than their opponents during the 90 minutes – but they conceded to Josh Ginnelly in the first-half and then Lawrence Shankland and Sibbick in the second.
“I thought we started extremely well on the front foot,” he said. “I do think we need to get that first goal more often that we’re getting it at the moment. And we did have opportunities to do that.
“We hit the post and their first opportunity comes from a breakaway. I think it’s a silly foul for Porto to make, although I’m not even sure it was a foul.
“But then we’ve got to defend the box. That’s something we need to be better at. But we pushed on in the first-half and had a couple of pot shots and chances.
“At half-time we felt we had a helluva chance to get back into the game. The second goal is poor. It’s really poor defending, too easy for Shankland to come inside (Chris) Cadden and open up and shoot.
“It was a decent finish, but the difference up to that point was the clinical nature inside the box. In terms of control, will and skill we had a lot of it. But we’re out of a cup and we’re extremely disappointed.”
Johnson added: “No-one wants to hear me talking about the positives. But I was honest with the players at half-time and full-time and I think our side had a lot of quality in it.
“We looked a better unit and a better side than we have done four or five weeks ago. Hearts are just that little bit ahead of us at the moment and we need to bridge that gap as quickly as possible.”
