The highly-rated midfielder has endured a nightmare 12 months
Eliot Matazo made a fleeting appearance in the first team squad against Millwall last Saturday(Image: Tony King/Getty Images)
Hull City midfielder Eliot Matazo has been hit by another setback in his recovery from knee ligament surgery, after sustaining a quadricep injury.
Matazo is expected to be sidelined for around four weeks after the problem emerged during the warm-up before City‘s 2-2 Under-21s draw with Sheffield United on Tuesday afternoon.
The Belgian midfielder was expected to play around an hour in what would have been his second appearance for Conor Sellars’ side in his comeback from the serious knee injury he sustained in Cardiff last February.
After feeling some discomfort in his upper leg, Matazo withdrew from the warm-up and did not feature as a precaution, and scans have since revealed the issue.
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Matazo is now set to be on the sidelines for another few weeks, which puts in some doubt whether or not he will make a first-team appearance before the end of the Championship season, though the club are relaxed about the situation and keen to make sure he’s fit and ready for the start of next season.
Meanwhile, the Tigers will welcome back Matt Crooks for Saturday’s trip to relegation-threatened West Brom at The Hawthorns after he served his two-game suspension for collecting 10 yellow cards this season.
Crooks missed the defeat to Millwall and the win at Wrexham, and his return is a timely boost to the Tigers, who now face the bottom three in their next trio of games.
The Tigers have no other fresh injury concerns from that superb success in North Wales, with skipper Lewie Coyle expected to be fit to travel to the Black Country. Injury-hit City will still be without Ryan Giles, Akin Famewo, Matty Jacob, Yu Hirakawa and Darko Gyabi, as well as Matazo.
Boss Sergej Jakirovic is hopeful Gyabi could return to training next week, with Giles, Jacob, and potentially Famewo returning early next month.
“It’s his quad, and it will be a couple of weeks, but I’m positive,” Jakirovic told Hull Live on the eve of the trip to the West Midlands, where the Tigers will be backed by a near sold-out away contingent of around 2,500 fans.
“I can be honest, I expected these problems. I don’t know, with his hamstring or quad. Eliot has a strong head and strong mentality. Our target when we spoke about this situation was for him to be ready for pre-season. This is my target. This is Eliot’s target, and we’re looking forward. He is now in therapy. Everything will be good in the end.
“Lewie trained today (Thursday), so he’s ready. Crooksy trained today. Everyone else is good. They’re all ready for Saturday,” the City chief added, before updating on the players currently sidelined in his usual comical way.
“Matty is walking around the pitch with Ryan Giles, drinking coffee. This is perfect. He’s in individual sessions. Darko Gyabi as well, and maybe Darko next week will start to train with the group in some parts, so this is good news.
“Gilo and Matty are on individual programmes. Akin Famewo, I saw him today. He’s here and also in therapy and walking around the pitch. This is a normal protocol. Then he (Famewo) will start to run and increase his intensity. I’m expecting them at the end of March, or the beginning of April.”
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