Tigers’ Jakupovic escapes serious injury after Owls loss

Fears of a serious injury to Hull City goalkeeper Eldin Jakupovic have been allayed after he was rushed to hospital following the Tigers’ derby defeat to Sheffield Wednesday.

High-flying Hull were stunned by a 3-1 defeat to rivals Wednesday which not only cost them three points in their promotion challenge but the loss of Jakupovic, who was stretchered off with a head injury.

The game was held up, forcing 14 minutes of stoppage time, as the 28-year-old Bosnian was put in a neck brace and taken to hospital.

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But last night, the Tigers revealed Jakupovic had been given the all-clear by medical chiefs.

“Eldin received treatment for a facial injury on the pitch, and was taken to the stadium’s medical room on a spinal board as a precaution,” said Rob Price, the Tigers head of medical services.

“At no time did Eldin suffer any loss of consciousness, and he was completely responsive throughout.

“He was then taken to Hull Royal Infirmary for further examination, where all results thankfully came out as normal.

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Hull City AFC would like to thank all paramedics involved and medical staff at Hull Royal Infirmary for their work yesterday.”

Jakupovic’s injury scare left Tigers manager Steve Bruce fearing a goalkeeping crisis for tomorrow’s FA Cup third round replay at Leyton Orient because 22-year-old reserve goalkeeper Mark Oxley is cup-tied, having played on loan for Burton.

“He’s gone to hospital and we hope he’s okay,” said Bruce after the game. “We won’t know how he is until he’s had a scan.

“We might have to use an emergency loan to bring in a goalkeeper.”

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Jakupovic will now be assessed today before Bruce decides his next move in the goalkeeping department.

On Saturday, Wednesday made it three wins and a draw from their last four away games with victory at the KC Stadium which took them out of the Championship’s bottom three. Defeat left second-placed Hull just two points clear of a trio of clubs.

Reda Johnson struck first and, after Robert Koren had equalised, Jakupovic conceded an own goal – dropping Miguel Llera’s inswinging corner over the line before picking up his facial injury when colliding with the onrushing Johnson – before Michail Antonio made it 3-1. Giles Coke also had a ‘goal’ ruled out for dangerous play, but TV replays showed that referee Mark Haywood made a mistake.

Hull’s Jay Simpson had a late penalty saved by Chris Kirkland, but Bruce admitted “we got our backsides kicked”.

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He added: “We probably made more mistakes today in 90 minutes than we have in the past three months.

“There were some crazy decisions made by the officials. The linesmen and referee arguably had as bad a night as we had. For their first goal, Llera was a yard offside.

“But, overall, I can’t complain because we’ve made elementary mistakes. We made far too many mistakes in terms of possession.”

Wednesday played a classic counter-attacking system, utilising the threat of wingers Antonio and Jermaine Johnson after they had hustled Hull into numerous mistakes.

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“We would have felt hard done by if we hadn’t come away with a win,” said Owls manager Dave Jones. “At 1-0, we scored a perfectly good goal and for the life of me I can’t understand why he’s disallowed it.

“You have to give the linesman credit for our second goal because the ball did go over the line. At least the linesman stood strong because I don’t think the referee was going to give it.”