Hull City's Grant McCann issues positive injury updates

The Tigers have had a really difficult start to 2020, with a crippling injury list compounding the deadline-day sales of Jarrod Bowen and Kamil Grosicki.

They have not won a Championship game since New Year's Day, and were two points above the relegation zone when English football was suspended due to the coronavirus.

So although no one would have wanted it to happen under these circumstances, the break until at least April 30, should ensure the squad is in better shape if and when the final nine matches of the campaign are played.

“In terms of the injured players, everyone's coming on well. Mallik (Wilks) is fit after his little injury with his hamstring,” said McCann in a video from home shared on his club's Twitter feed. “He's back training individually at home.

“Tom Eaves could be running in two weeks' time. Hopefully when the season starts again we could have Eavesey back, which is a big, big plus for us.

“James Scott is coming on really well, he's out of the (protective) boot now and he'll be running on the Alter-G (anti-gravity treadmill) in possibly three weeks' time where it's 80 per cent of his body weight and we reduce the load on him. If the season starts again in another month or two we could have James back.

“Eric (Lichaj) is 80 per cent running pain-free so he's in a good place and Herbie (Kane) is back, Herbie's fine. If we trained tomorrow, Herbie would be good.

“Everyone seems good and the break has come at a perfect time for us in terms of the injuries and getting them back but we understand that people's lives and everything else that's happening in the world is more important than anything else.”

It had been feared Eaves, Scott, Lichaj and Kane might not play again this season through ankle injuries. For Scott it was particularly devastating, as he picked up his injury at the start of his first training session since joining from Motherwell in a £1.5m deadline-day deal.

McCann also revealed the club have been using technology to keep the players' competitive juices flowing as they continue to work individually on their fitness at home.

“We've created an app and made it competitive for them so every day they'll get their scores in terms of what they've run, how far they've run, how quickly they've completed the session, and we can try and create a little leaderboard and keep it competitive for them,” he revealed. “Everyone's buying into it.”

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