Pat Fenlon has been hit by a number of injury blows ahead of the Fourth Round game of the William Hills Scottish Cup against Cowdenbeath tomorrow but is close to bolstering his squad with some new signings. His number one 'keeper Graham Stack suffered a calf injury in the 3-1 Edinburgh derby defeat to Hearts at Easter Road and will miss the cup game and could be out for at least two weeks. Striker Garry O'Connor is still suffering from the niggling toe problem which prevented him playing from the start on Saturday against Hearts, just coming on for the final moments of the game. Hibs could have done with O'Connor at full strength as the loss means that Hibs are still just one point above Dunfermline at the foot of the SPL table. With problems at the front and back, Fenlon also has problems in the middle of the team as Ian Murray has had surgery as a result of a troublesome hip problem. Looking past these problems for the moment, Fenlon, who has already added striker Eoin Doyle to his squad this month, said: "We're close to a couple of things, but until they are over the line I don't want our supporters getting their hopes up too much. We're looking to bring in players who will improve the squad and help us in the fight we're in until the end of the season." Turning back to his injury worries, the Easter Road manager said: "Graham is struggling and he'll be out for a couple of weeks minimum. He injured his calf against Hearts and that is a bit of a blow for us. But the good thing is we've got a top-class goalkeeper (Mark Brown) coming in to replace him. Garry O'Connor is still out. He is resting his toe and we're just seeing if we can get him back to 100% fitness before he comes back into training. He has been training and playing for the past month with an injury. I think the time had come to give him a break. We've got some big games coming up, but we've also got a lot of the season left. So rather than just having him just half-right or 70% fit, we wanted to get him back to being 100% fit. Ian Murray had an operation today, so he'll be out for the next two or three weeks. He's had a couple of minor injuries in the hip area and hopefully this will resolve the problem once and for all." Midfielder Isaiah Osbourne could return for next week's SPL game at Dunfermline following an abductor injury and Fenlon is retaining hope of keeping striker Leigh Griffiths at Easter Road. Griffiths' loan from Wolves ends on 9 January and he is hoping his Irish charm will help help in the talks which are ongoing with the Premier League side. Fenlon said: "It's still where it is - it hasn't moved on. We want to keep Leigh and he wants to stay. Wolves have also made their position clear. There is still some negotiating that needs to take place between the two clubs and hopefully that can be resolved. I'd love to hang on to Leigh."
Source: FOOTYMAD
