Mccann: We rushed Josh back too soon
GRANT Mccann admits Josh Magennis was rushed back into Hull City’s first team fold too quickly, after suffering from coronavirus.
The Northern Irish international came off the bench at Portsmouth on Saturday to net the fourth goal in stoppage time to seal a stunning victory.
Prior to that, Magennis netted City’s third goal from the penalty spot a week ago against Accrington Stanley in his fourth appearance since recovering from the debilitating virus, but Mccann admits bringing him back for the draw at Sunderland was probably a little too early.
“Josh has had a tough time of it in terms of the illness he had,” Mccann said. “He lost quite a lot of weight, about a stone he’s lost and hit him badly, it probably hit him harder than others.”
Magennis started on the bench at the Stadium of Light, coming on three minutes before the break to replace the stricken Tom Eaves; he then started home games against Fleetwood and Blackpool before finding himself given a watching brief with Keane Lewis-potter preferred up front.
“We’ve had to be very careful with him,” continued the Tigers’ boss.
“We probably rushed him back a little bit too soon, because of the numbers we’ve got.
“We brought him on at Sunderland when we probably shouldn’t have brought him on so quickly; we got 60 minutes into him and after that, he’s had a couple more.
“We’ve got to be careful with Josh, he’s getting back and starting to feel a bit sharper, and again, we’ve got really good options with Magennis, with (Dan) Crowley and young Billy (Chadwick) coming off the bench.”