Christian Doidge set for Hibs return despite horror injury that left eye 'virtually hanging out'

Hibs warrior Christian Doidge is set to line-up against St Johnstone seven days after suffering an injury that left "his eye virtually hanging out".

Those were the words of boss Nick Montgomery describing the scene in the Rugby Park away dressing room last week after Doidge took an accidental knee to the face from Kilmarnock defender Robbie Deas. The Welsh hitman was cut above and below the eye and required a 25-minute stitch-up job to repair the damage. But he's declared himself fit to face St Johnstone and Hibs boss Montgomery said: “His eye was virtually hanging out.

"He cut the top and bottom of his eye. To be honest, I didn’t realise at the time but it was a pretty horrific injury. Looking back at VAR, I don’t think the lad meant to do it, but it was a UFC move and his eye was completely split open. At half-time, I’ve looked at the club doctor and he just shook his head. The stitching of the two cuts took about 25 minutes, so that meant there was no way we could put him back on for the second half.

“Doidgey is massively important for the team, he’s a real foil for the pace we’ve got out wide and he’s a real competitor in the box, you saw that in his goal against Aberdeen. It’s good to have him back.

“We’ve limited any contact this week to make sure his eye didn’t split open again and get infected, which is always a risk. But he’s raring to go tomorrow and I’ll make a decision whether to start him. Every day is another day for it to heal, and fortunately he’s not been head-butted this week!

“He hasn’t needed a mask. There’s no fracture but he’ll have some sort of padding. I don’t know how you cover your eye, though, unless he plays with one eye!”

Montgomery admits he might shake things up for the visit of Saints. He