Hip injury puts Slivka in doubt for Premiership start

Hibs head coach Paul Heckingbottom has revealed Vykintas Slivka has been added to the list of Easter Road players battling to be fit for the start of the new Premiership season.

Slivka suffered a tendon problem in his hip while on international duty with Lithuania, playing in European Championship matches against Luxembourg and Serbia at the beginning of last month.

As yet he’s been unable to rejoin Heckingbottom’s squad in pre-season training, putting a question mark against whether he’ll be ready to face St Mirren in the opening league match on 3 August .

Lewis Stevenson, who picked up a calf injury, and Ryan Porteous, still recovering from the knee operation he underwent midway through last season, haven’t played in Hibs’ three friendlies to date, away to Arbroath, Dunfermline and Carlisle.

Like Slivka, all three are unlikely to feature in any of Hibs’ upcoming four Betfred Cup matches which precede the visit of the Buddies, with Heckingbottom pointing out they trail the rest of his squad in terms of fitness by some way.

He said: “I don’t know whether Vicky will be ready for the start of the Premiership season. Medically, it’s possible but the longer he is out, the more work he needs to do to get up to speed with the rest of the boys.” William Troost-ekong’s late strike sent Nigeria into the semi-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations at the expense of South Africa.

The Udinese centre-back struck in the 89th minute to seal a 2-1 win at the Cairo International Stadium. Samuel Chukwueze opened the scoring for Nigeria in the first half only for Bongani Zungu to level in the second half after VAR intervened. The Super Eagles will play Ivory Coast or Algeria in the semi-finals in Cairo on Sunday.

Chukwueze opened the scoring after 27 minutes when he linked with Arsenal’s Alex Iwobi to score at the second attempt.

Zungu levelled with 20 minutes remaining when he nodded in from a free-kick and it was given after a VAR check showed the ball came off Nigeria’s Odion Ighalo before it fell to an initially offside Zungu.

But Nigeria won it with a minute left when goalkeeper Ronwen Williams missed his punch from Moses Simon’s corner to allow Troost-ekong to bundle in the winner.