The Tigers head to Vicarage Road in search of a first away win
Hull City head coach Sergej Jakirovic will be forced into at least one change when the Tigers face Watford at Vicarage Road on Saturday afternoon.
After making his long-awaited comeback from an ACL injury against Blackburn Rovers last month, Mohamed Belloumi’s first City start in almost 11 months ended abruptly with him limping off before half-time with a hamstring problem.
Belloumi now faces a spell on the sidelines as he recovers from that setback, so it leaves Jakirovic facing up to finding a replacement for the Algerian winger.
Darko Gyabi was the player introduced for Belloumi before the break, and though he had a shaky start, the England Under-21 international grew into the game, playing in support of Oli McBurnie.
Jakirovic must decide whether or not to keep faith with Gyabi at Vicarage Road, or bring in David Akintola or Joel Ndala to play on the right side of City’s attack.
In truth, that’s arguably the only real selection headache facing the Croatian, given how well his side played in seeing off the Saints at a sodden MKM Stadium, though that might change on Tuesday night for the second outing in the three-game week.
Unless there are any last-minute injury scares picked up in training, it’s hard to make a case for anyone else being dropped from the starting XI.
Brandon Williams will be available again after going through the concussion protocol, having missed the last two games, and the trip to Hertfordshire will come too soon for Semi Ajayi and Matt Crooks, while Liam Millar could feature on the bench.
City’s predicted XI: Pandur, Giles, Hughes, Egan, Coyle, Amir, Lundstram, Joseph, Gelhardt, Akintola, McBurnie.
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