The influential pair are closing in on their long-awaited returns to first team action
Hull City head coach Sergej Jakirovic says he expects to have injured duo Liam Millar and Mohamed Belloumi back after the first international break of the season.
The pair have been stepping up their recovery during pre-season training as they look to make their comebacks from ACL injuries picked up back in the Autumn.
It’s likely that both will miss the first month of the season, but be ready when City return to action at Swansea City on September 13 in the fifth outing of the league campaign.
City are keen to proceed carefully with two of the Tigers’ most influential players, given they’ve been out for so long with such significant injuries, but the prospect of their returns in the near future is a big boost.
“They’re at eighty per cent,” Jakirovic told Hull Live. “We need to be more patient because there is still some asymmetry in the hamstring (difference in strength between left and right legs), so we need some more time. I think it will be around the international break, so at the end of August, beginning of September, I think it will be OK.”
Millar had his surgery first after suffering his injury against Burnley on October 23 while Belloumi went down in the closing stages of the defeat at Oxford United on November 5. But it’s the Morroccan who has moved ahead according to the Bosnian head coach.
“I think for both (will return towards the end of the month), but I think now Mo is a little bit closer to getting back to the group training,” he added.
The imminent return of the duo, who have struck up a close friendship over the past nine months or so, is a huge boost to the Tigers ahead as the new season prepares to kick off at Coventry City this weekend.
After losing Millar and Belloumi, Abu Kamara was the only recognised winger at the club. Louie Barry arrived in January but suffered a knee ligament injury in just his fourth outing, leaving then boss Ruben Selles to try various players in the wide role.
This term, Jakirovic will go into the new season with loanee Joel Ndala on loan from Manchester City and Nigerian winger David Akintola, as well as Kamara.
Meanwhile, Eliot Matazo, who suffered his ACL injury at Cardiff City in February, is expected to return to the fold around Christmastime.
You can watch a video interview with Liam Millar right here
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