Double Fitness Boost For Hull

Martin O’Neill is expecting to have Gabby and Hokey Cokey back in contention for the Hull game.

Monday’s Bank Holiday clash is, like them all, a must win match for us but the manager is confident that both players will be back in contention after they missed the Bolton draw.

Gabby as we know was out with a hamstring niggle, but apparently NRC was missing with a knee injury.

O’Neill will also be checking on the fitness of Luke Young in the hope he can squeeze back from his damaged foot.

Speaking on the official site, he said:

‘Nigel and Gabby should be fine.

‘Gabby has trained – although he did train last week to be fair and still missed the Bolton game. It was a precaution that he didn’t play at the weekend because he just felt it.

‘But I think he will be fine for Hull.

‘Nigel has come in this week and has gradually done some work. He is feeling much, much better which is good news. He should be fine too.

‘Luke has been sore for quite a number of weeks – playing with pain-killing injections. In the game against West Ham, he felt the injection wore off rather quickly. But he played through it.

‘I thought the best thing to do was to give him a rest. He’s been able to do that and we’ll look at him again towards the end of the week.

‘He definitely feels better and is seeing the benefits of missing the game against Bolton. But we’ll see. It might be a problem that stays with him until the end of the season.’

Wouldn’t it be ironic if it was Luke’s leftfoot that he’d hurt or is that just me?