Hibs: Jack Ross speaks on Stevie Mallan injury and headache of no reserve games

Hibs head coach Jack Ross admits it is tough for injured players to get back up to speed because there are no reserve matches being played in Scotland.

Pre-season fixtures were exclusively top-flight affairs and as a result, Ross is looking forward to the lower leagues resuming towards the end of this month.

"Every club is still managing to arrange closed-doors games but at the moment it's still between Premiership clubs,” he said.

"It's just a case of looking at the fixture schedule to see when you're not playing a team for a while.

“We've got the return of the Championship and lower league clubs from the end of this month, so we'll help them and they'll help us, because the option to play them in their pre-season games will be there.

“We're nearly through the worst of it in terms of having the difficulty in organising games.”

One player who could benefit from bounce games to fine-tune his fitness is Stevie Mallan. The midfielder last kicked a competitive ball for Hibs in the Boxing Day Edinburgh derby win against Hearts at Tynecastle last year, before being sidelined with a knee injury for the remainder of the curtailed 2019/20 season.

While the 24-year-old took part in much of the Easter Road side’s pre-season programme, he is still experiencing some discomfort and will miss the trip to Livingston on Saturday.

"He had an injection this week but he should be back in training early next week.

“He's not missed an awful lot of pre-season so he's not too far behind, he just needs to catch up in terms of games and then I'll have him available.

“It’s a bit frustrating for him, but nothing too serious to worry about.”

Winger Drey Wright will also sit out the West Lothian visit with a thigh strain, while defensive duo Adam Jackson and Sean Mackie are expected to miss out.