‘Devastating’ – Liam Rosenior’s comment following the latest Hull City injury setback
City’s campaign has been plagued by injury since the start last July.
Liam Rosenior says Aaron Connolly’s latest injury setback is a terrible blow, after the Hull City manager stated the Republic of Ireland striker would not return for the Championship season’s final game against Luton Town next Monday.
Connolly has missed the last 14 games due to a toe injury sustained in a February tie at Stoke City, and it had been thought that he would have returned to action by now, with the possibility of featuring in Saturday’s 1-1 draw at home to Swansea.
The 23-year-old has experienced a number of setbacks in his quest to regain fitness and will now miss the last game of a season marred by important player injuries.
While Connolly’s time at City may be ended, given that his loan stay ends after the game at Kenilworth Road, there is hope that leading scorer Oscar Estupinan will return to Bedfordshire, but Rosenior is confident Ryan Longman will be in the squad.
“Aaron has had a small setback on his toe again, and he’s going back for a second opinion (from a doctor), which is devastating to me,” a visibly irritated Rosenior said.
“Oscar is back running, and he was back.”
Meanwhile, the Tigers’ head coach explained why in-form defender Sean McLoughlin was left out of the starting lineup at the weekend, with Alfie Jones returning from a four-game sabbatical to replace him.
“It was two things,” Rosenior explained. “It was nice to have Alfie back, and he provides natural balance in our build, as demonstrated in the build-up to the goal.
“Macca was pretty tired after the last game, and I remember in the locker room that he was touching his hamstring a little bit, and those are the subtle indicators that a coach needs to get right.
“He (Macca) has been top, I’m so lucky to have three outstanding centre halves. The reason for leaving Macca out was purely because of fatigue and making sure he’s right next season.”
City will continue to be without Cyrus Christie and Benjamin Tetteh, both of whom were ruled out for the campaign in February and March respectively.
