Ryan Porteous will miss Hibs’ New Year Edinburgh derby clash with Hearts through suspension.
The Easter Road star, who looks set to leave the club next month after rejected the offer of a new contract from his boyhood club, headed them in front during an entertaining return to Scottish Premiership action at Ibrox on Thursday night. His early header was cancelled out by Fashion Sakala, only for Kevin Nisbet to fire the Hibees back into the lead 53 seconds later.
A second half comeback by Michael Beale's men ensured he began life as Rangers boss with all three points, however. Ryan Jack equalised from close range before Alfredo Morelos produced a similarly simple finish for the winner, cutting Celtic’s lead at the top of the table to six points for the time being. Both the Glasgow and Edinburgh clubs face each other on 2 January, but Porteous won’t be involved in the capital clash.
He was booked on the hour mark for a clumsy foul on Glen Kamara, which takes him to six cautions in the Premiership for the season. That means a one game ban to be served 14 days after earning the suspension.
That rules the 23-year-old out of the trip to Tynecastle. The Jambos make the journey to Easter Road three weeks later for a mouthwatering Scottish Cup fourth round tie.
Porteous should be available for that, but it remains to be seen if he will still be a Hibs player by then. With his contract up in the summer and having rejected the offer of anew deal from Hibs, it’s likely that the club will cash in on any interest in January.
Boss Lee Johnson wasn’t immediately aware of the consequences of Porteous’ yellow, but says that seems to be the way things are going for his side at the moment. He said: “I didn’t know that. Obviously that’s a negative but football seems to be throwing these things at us at the moment.
“I thought he did extremely well against Rangers - it might have raised a few eyebrows me putting him in midfield, but I thought he filled the gaps well. He’s competitive in there, he’s a real athlete physically and he’s good on the ball.
“It was another good performance from a player who has, I think, shown a lot of commitment in difficult circumstances.”
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