HIBERNIAN manager Nick Montgomery has revealed that Josh Campbell twisted his ankle in the Edinburgh derby against Hearts at Easter Road tonight as he admitted he would like to strengthen his “stretched” squad during the January transfer window.
Campbell was stretchered off in the first half of a cinch Premiership match with the Tynecastle club which the home team lost 1-0 after conceding a Lawrence Shankland goal in the third minute of injury-time.
Montgomery predicted that the midfielder, who will miss Hibs’ final league game before the winter break against Motherwell in Leith on Saturday, will be out of action for around a fortnight.
The Englishman, who admitted he was “devastated” that his charges failed to defend the long ball up the field which Shankland netted a later winner from, confessed he would like to increase his options by signing a couple of new players next month.
“It looks like Josh Campbell now may be out for a couple of weeks,” he said. “He has just twisted his ankle. I am not sure the extent of it. He will probably have to have a scan on that to get a clear indication of how bad the injury is.
“Josh has been good for us. But Elie (Youan) came on and had a good couple of opportunities to possibly score, but it wasn’t to be tonight. We have made a lot of progress, but results are results and that’s a really tough one to take.
“Right now, we are short on bodies, we know that. You have only got to look at the contrast in the two squads. We have got a few boys hopefully coming back from injuries, from long-term injuries.
“But getting them back in training is one thing, getting them fit and ready to play is another. We have got a lot of young players so there might be opportunities for them.
“But it is not easy. There are not a lot of quality players out there who are not playing. What we need to do is find a couple of players who can come in and help us out until we get boys back from injury.
“With the AFCON and the Asan Cup coming up we are losing four or five players now so you can see how stretched the squad is. But we have to take the positives out of that. There are going to be opportunities for other players to come in.”
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Montgomery conceded that his players needed to do more to prevent Scotland striker Shankland, who had missed an early penalty, from scoring at the death to win the Edinburgh derby for Hearts.
“I am devastated,” he said. “It is a cruel game at times. I have been in football for a long time and it was just one moment of quality from a quality striker at the end. Yeah, heartbreaking. We have to move on from it now.
“I said to the boys after the game that I can’t ask for any more from them. We maybe need a bit more quality in that final third. I thought we had enough chances. The stats tell you that we had more shots, on goal, off goal. I can’t ask any more from them.
“It was just one moment, a bit of a mistake at the back, letting the ball bounce from a long goal kick. Shankland backs in. A lot of the time he is backing into the defender. He is smart. But we have got to be stronger, Rocky (Bushiri) and Will(Fish). It is just one bit of unfortunate luck. The ball bounces, he spins out of it and it is a quality finish. That is the difference in the game.”