Mykola Kukharevych tried to be the Hibs hero the last time he was injured and learned a valuable lesson.
The Ukrainian striker is an Edinburgh derby doubt after hurting himself in the warm-up prior to the Hibees’ midweek defeat at home to Celtic. That made things tricky for Lee Johnson, with the coaching staff having to be careful with fit again Kevin Nisbet after his own lengthy injury layoff.
Nisbet will likely start against Hearts at Tynecastle on Monday, but 90 minutes may be a step too far given his lack of playing time in 2022. That means reinforcements will be needed from the bench, but Kukharevych might not be on it after pulling up before kick-off on Wednesday night. With Martin Boyle on the sidelines for the remainder of the campaign, Johnson cold find himself short on attacking options for the trip across the capital.
“He got injured again in the warm up,” Johnson explained. “I’m not sure exactly how. I think he must have struck a shot and it didn’t feel quite right. It wasn’t too bad, but we’d had a bit of a discussion on the back of the Celtic game away when we lost 6-1. He said he was alright on the back of a bad back, played and was trying to be a hero, but he wasn’t fit.
“He was lame, if you like, in terms of his back so that was a bit of a lesson for him. He’s young, he doesn't know his body yet and he wanted to be brave. “But sometimes by being brave, you let the team down. So I think there was that air of caution for the team, knowing that he was probably going to need to play a half hour coming off the bench.
“With Nizzy, we’re chasing his minutes but more importantly. We’re chasing the load. After a year out, this period of games and this load is very difficult to manage for the likes of him and Kyle [Magennis]. Mykola isn’t definitely out. He’s 50-50 I suppose, in terms of percentiles.”
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