The influential striker has two goals in his last two appearances off Hull City’s bench
Hull City star Oli McBurnie admits he rushed himself back too soon from the calf injury which saw him miss nine games of the Championship season.City‘s talisman is back and already among the goals, with two off the bench in his last two games, to take his tally to nine in 12 games for the campaign, netting against Wrexham and Millwall to put the seal on successive victories.The star striker was forced off in the second half of the win at Birmingham City, but attempted to return against Norwich at the start of November, but then suffered a fresh test which ruled him out again.McBurnie, who is pushing for a start against West Brom on Saturday, says it was his determination to get back on the pitch that was his undoing, but he has revealed how he’s completely clear of the issue and getting back to full fitness ahead of a crucial Christmas period.
“I feel really good,” McBurnie told Hull Live. “It was frustrating. At the start, it was just a little tear, and I came back a little bit too soon and kind of re-tore it worse than what it was at the start, which was frustrating.
“It was almost naive and from my point-of-view. I was just desperate to get back out there. I feel really good, the second time around, the second injury round, we did everything right, again. We took a bit longer than what we would have liked it to do, but no, I feel really good. Got a couple of weeks training under my belt now, a couple of games and, yeah, I feel, feel fighting fit.
“That’s it, now. We’ve done everything right, done all the healing right. It was just a calf tear and then another calf tear, so it was just more the re-injury that was, that was frustrating part. Everything’s good now, so all good to go.”
Naturally a big miss while he was out of action, McBurnie’s return off the bench led boss Sergej Jakirovic to jokingly suggest he could start there again, given Kyle Joseph has three in his last two games.
Joseph two’s goals in seven minutes at The Den came after the hosts had started quickly, before the Tigers took control and deservedly won the game, but it needed his calming influence to kill off their threat after pulling a goal back following Femi Azeez’s dismissal, which the Lions have appealed against.
“I actually missed the first couple of minutes, I was still inside getting my socks on or something and came out and they said there had been a bit of an onslaught for the first couple of minutes. I come out and KJ’s put two in nicely, so it was a lovely game,” he continued.
“I didn’t really know what I was doing, I’ve been out that long, I didn’t really know what time I was supposed to get myself sorted out and stuff,” McBurnie said with a grin.
“Sometimes when you do go down to 10 men, it can be easier a little bit, especially if you’re losing you kind of go hell for leather. You can go for it. When they got the goal pretty much straight away, it was a bit more nervy than what we would have liked the last bit to be, so it was nice to finish the game off.
“I think the boys were excellent. It would have been an absolute travesty if we had come away with anything apart from three points, so it was nice to help the boys.
“The gaffer said to me; ‘Do you want to just play 20 minutes every week and score’? My body feels better, to be fair. It was so frustrating for me being out watching the boys and not being able to help them out there.
“The boys were excellent in the Wrexham game, and I thought we were unlucky to only be 1-0 up at that point (when he came on) so, again, the timing of that goal was nice. I’m just happy to be back out there with the boys, happy to be helping the boys pick up some results and nice to be on the score-sheet a couple of times.”
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