Aiden McGeady set to be unleashed against Rangers as Hibs winger ends his injury hell
LEE JOHNSON admits he’s ready to unleash Aiden McGeady against Rangers after ending his injury hell.
The Hibs winger made his first appearance in five months after a knee injury by climbing off the bench as Lee Johnson’s side defeated Raith 1-0 in an Easter Road friendly.
The 36-year-old former Celtic star could now make his Premiership debut at Ibrox next Thursday, with Kevin Nisbet also set for a first league start of the campaign, and Johnson is delighted to have the duo available especially with Martin Boyle ruled out.
He said: “As a manager you’re looking at individuals, you have illnesses here or there, and you try to piece together the perfect blend.
“Obviously, Martin Boyle is going to be out, so we’re trying to find a solution to that position, and we have a big game coming up against Rangers at Ibrox too, so there’s all these factors to think about.
“A club like us, we need our best players fit and the maximum number of options available.
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“Going into the Rangers game, we’ve certainly got minutes in those players.
“Whether we’ve got 96 minutes is another story because of their history, but at the same time if we can make them sharp for 45 to 60 minutes, then that leaves us with options.
“That will help us play the way that we want to play for as long as possible.
“As a staff we’ve been working extremely hard, and when I say staff, I include the back of house on the football side, which is recruitment, player care, operations and the physio team. This spell has served us really well.
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“We’ve had to get some players that’ve been injured for a while back up to speed, so for them, they’ve had a mini pre-season so we can push them on a physical level.”
Josh Campbell’s early strike gave the Hibees the win over Ian Murray’s Raith Rovers.
The midfielder let fly from 25-yards and it looked to be an easy take for keeper Andrew McNeil but he got it all wrong and parried the shot into his own net.
Johnson believes the victory was down to the hard graft over the World Cup break.
He added: “We’ve worked a lot on the psychology of the players, which was evident. We got a clean sheet, which was good and that breeds confidence.
“The preparation we put in, in terms of our off the ball work, showed and was part of us keeping a clean sheet, which was the focus of the day.
“Sometimes you take games like this because of the work you put in during the last three or four weeks.”
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