The influential forward looks set to miss the visit of Wrexham on Wednesday night
Hull City have been rocked by another major injury blow in a season where they continue to be hit by major setbacks with leading scorer Joe Gelhardt now the latest to be struck down.
The 10-goal striker suffered a calf problem in the second half of Friday night’s disastrous 4-1 defeat to Middlesbrough after taking a kick, and is a major doubt for the visit of Wrexham on Wednesday night.
City hope Gelhardt’s injury isn’t as serious as the similar injuries which saw Oli McBurnie and John Lundstram sidelined earlier in the season. The pair missed eight and nine games, respectively.
News of Gelhardt’s injury will come as a blow to boss Sergej Jakirovic, who had hoped to have a near-fully fit squad to pick from in the next week, but Lundstram’s brief return was cut short after he picked up a knee injury in training last week and is now facing another spell out.
Jakirovic does have McBurnie and Millar back available, with the pair set to be involved on Wednesday night against Wrexham, but losing Gelhardt, who has scored eight goals in his last 10 games, is a major setback, though Mo Belloumi is pushing for a return to the starting XI.
Gelhardt joins Lundstram, Kasey Palmer and Eliot Matazo on the sidelines as City look to end a run of successive MKM defeats to Boro and Ipswich Town against the Welsh outfit, managed by former boss Phil Parkinson.
“He’s not trained today (Monday). We’re waiting on some medical checks, so we’ll see how he is for Wednesday,” assistant boss Dean Holden told Hull Live.
“It’s his calf, yes. He picked something up in that calf in the second half and sort of signalled to the bench that he needed to come off, so let’s, let’s wait and see on that one.”
Losing Gelhardt for any significant amount of time would be a major blow to City, who have been plagued by injury troubles to key players all season.
“Look at the numbers that he’s produced, goes under the radar a little bit in terms of the work that he does for the team, as well as his goals, assists and chances created,” Holden continued.
“When he’s not on the training pitch, you miss him out there as well with his energy, but we’ll wait and see. If he’s not available, then it’s up to somebody else to step up.
“The manager’s said numerous times now that there’s going to be opportunities for players. We’ve got one or two off to AFCON after the Millwall game.
“It’s just where we’re at in the season with the amount of games that we’ve got in front of us, there’s always going to be opportunities, so whoever the manager decides to play, if Joffo’s not ready, they’ve got to be ready to take it.”
Belloumi impressed off the bench in the second half of the win at Stoke City, creating both goals, and caught the eye again on Friday. Holden says the Algerian is more likely to start the game against Wrexham than Millar and McBurnie.
“I would say Mo’s probably closer to starting in terms of the amount of training that he’s had. Liam and Oli have not had a great deal of training, really. Liam a little bit more than Oli. Oli’s only trained once or twice, so we’ll wait and see tomorrow (Tuesday) to see how we go.
“Cody’s (Drameh) not back with the group just yet. He was on the grass this morning (Monday), doing some light jogging. We’re awaiting a little bit of news in terms of how long that might be. If he can train tomorrow. It’s not that big an issue, really, so we’re waiting to see if he can be available for tomorrow. If not, can he get ready for Millwall?
“Lundstram is having some medical checks later this afternoon, early evening, so again, we’ll wait and see on that, but other than that, it’ll be a similar squad to the weekend.”
Here at Hull Live , we are dedicated to bringing you the best Hull City coverage and analysis. Make sure you don’t miss out on the latest City news by joining our free WhatsApp group.
You can get all the breaking news and best analysis sent straight to your phone by clicking here to subscribe. You can also subscribe to our free newsletter service.
Click here to be sent all the day’s biggest stories.