There is some light at the end of City’s very dark injury tunnel
Eliot Matazo is set to mark his return from more than a year out this week(Image: George Wood/Getty Images)
Semi Ajayi is set to feature in a Hull City squad for the first time since mid-December as the Tigers prepare for Tuesday’s huge meeting with play-rivals Ipswich Town.
Ajayi hasn’t been involved since the win at Millwall, having been away at the Africa Cup of Nations over Christmas, and then picking up a hamstring injury in the final game in Morocco.
The Nigerian defender will be in the squad at Portman Road as the Tigers look to make it six consecutive away wins and take a huge step towards securing a play-off place.
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Toby Collyer is closing in on a return to the first team fold after his hamstring injury, but the game will come too soon, and instead of travelling to Suffolk he will continue training at Cottingham in a bid to force himself into contention for the weekend visit of Millwall to the MKM Stadium.
There’s also good news on the imminent return of Eliot Matazo, with the Belgian midfielder set to make his return to action after more than 12 months out with an ACL injury.
Matazo is pencilled in to play 30 minutes for Conor Sellars’ Under-21s at Peterborough United’s training ground on Tuesday afternoon, his first appearance since rupturing his ACL at Cardiff City in late February last year. City remain without Ryan Giles, Mo Belloumi, Matty Jacob, Yu Hirakawa and Darko Gyabi.
Speaking on the eve of the game, which pits fourth vs fifth in the Championship, assistant boss Dean Holden confirmed Ajayi would be part of the travelling party.
“We’re fine, we’ve got a couple of bumps and niggles from the weekend,” Holden told Hull Live. “Everybody’s come through unscathed, and we’ll welcome Semi back into the squad, which is a big boost for us. He’s been out for a decent amount of time since that AFCON game. He’s not had loads of training, but trained again this morning (Monday), looks fine, and he’ll come back in, so that’s a big boost.
“Timely, and Toby’s, hopefully not too far behind as well. You’ve got the guys, then behind them in that next batch of players coming back from injury. Particularly during this heavy schedule that we’ve got coming up before this next break, there’s a lot of games, so it’s a big boost for us.
“He’ll (Collyer) be able to get a little bit more training in the next couple of days while we’re down in Ipswich, and we’ll see on Wednesday or Thursday if he’s ready to come back in for the next game.
“Mo’s (Belloumi) back on the grass again, not too many team sessions just yet, so I don’t think he’s right around the corner when we’ll see him back, but I don’t think he’s going to be, maybe too far off.
“Good news of Eliot,” Holden continued. “He’s going to get 30 minutes or so tomorrow (Tuesday) for the Under 21s. That’s a huge moment for him, been out a long time. We’ve just got to make sure that we get that (right). He’s coming right to the end of this long rehab that he’s had, and we’ve got to make sure we do the right thing by him now.
“We’ve had a couple of difficult situations with Mo and Liam coming back from long-term injuries, so it’s not just about the knee; it’s about every other part of his body. Making sure he’s resilient and robust enough to go into Championship fixtures, but 30 minutes or so tomorrow (Tuesday) hopefully, and we’ll build that up again next week and the next game for the Under 21s (vs Sheffield United at the MKM Stadium), and then we’ll just take it by then, we’ll see game by game.”
Given the schedule of seven games in 21 days, and two huge ones to come against Millwall and Wrexham in the next week, City must be careful with the likes of Oli McBurnie and Joe Gelhardt, something Holden is mindful of.
“Potentially, I think there are a few options in that forward line, I think and in midfield, in fairness. We’ll see Sergei’s call on that. The important thing is to get through to the weekend unscathed, making sure we’ve got options. With Crooksy coming back in, it gives us another, another body, we’ll see.
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