TIGERS HAVE TO WAIT FOR ELDER PROGNOSIS
HULL City are facing a nervous wait over the extent of Callum Elder’s injury after the Australian international lasted barely a quarterof-an-hour at Blackpool on New Year’s Day.
Elder, back in the side at the expense of the injured Mallik Wilks, went down 16 minutes into City’s 1-0 defeat on the Fylde Coast with Tyler Smith coming on in his place which saw a shift in formation from head coach Grant Mccann.
The injury to Elder left a hole down their left which in-form Josh Bowler exploited to win a penalty just after the half-hour mark, drawing a foul from Jacob Greaves which Gary Madine converted.
Losing Elder was not Mccann’s only fitness concern as both Josh Magennis and Ryan Longman picked up knocks, adding to an injury list which already includes Josh Emmanuel, Lewie Coyle and Alfie Jones with as many as 10 players potentially doubtful for Saturday’s FA Cup tie at home to Everton.
“It looks a bit like a groin strain that Callum has got,” Mccann said.
“We’ll let it settle down over the next 24, 48 hours and see how he progresses with the treatment. Hopefully it’s not too bad.
“Josh Magennis came off and felt his hamstring a little bit.
“Ryan Longman was struggling to get through the game - he cramped up. Ryan hasn’t trained for a while he only trained yesterday.”
Despite being able to name a strong team at Bloomfield Road following an outbreak of coronavirus within the camp which caused the postponement of two festive games, City were still without the likes of Wilks, George Moncur and Tom Huddlestone.
“We’ve got a lot of bumps and bruises at the minute, lads returning from the Covid situations - we had three or four of them on the pitch today,” Mccann continued.
“It’s been a tough time for us but that’s no excuse for us in terms of the performance and result.
“We had about seven or eight missing due to Covid-related or injury problems.
“It’s been frustrating for us the last 10 days but we’ve tested the last few days and seem to have clear tests.
“I’m just hoping and praying we don’t get any more next week.”