Martin Boyle's season-ending injury is a huge blow for Hibs - but Kevin Nisbet can help ease the pain.
The Australian international returned to the club in August after an eight-month stint in Saudi Arabia and immediately reinstated himself as their talisman. An ACL injury though means he's missed the World Cup and will also be out of action for the rest of this term, Lee Johnson's men eighth in the Premiership ahead of starting their season again versus Rangers.
Valerio Zuddas - a first-teach coach during the Shaun Maloney tenure last season - was tasked with helping Hibs deal with Boyle's departure for Al-Faisaly and that was only made tougher when Kevin Nisbet picked up a long-term knee injury in February. Speaking to Record Sport , he insists that his former club had to change their play book when the 29-year-old departed: "With Martin, you have the possible to penetrate in the final third. It's more direct and not having Martin, you have to have positional play, which is more line of passes or making an overload on one side to try to go over the defensive line.
"It's a totally different approach to when you have Martin on the right-side. I remember a game against Dundee United on Boxing Day he was really dangerous and he does make the difference.
"When we didn't have him we went with positional play and again that changes your approach. We could have done better but we were not ready to not have him."
There were fleeting moments when Maloney, Valerio and co got to pair Nisbet together with Maloney and the Italian coach does wonder what may have been had one stayed and the other kept fit.
There's no point dwelling after the former Belgium tactician's Easter Road reign ended in abrupt fashion after four months, but having two key attackers could have made a difference.
He explained: "Unfortunately Martin was sold and Kevin did his ACL. I feel really sorry for Martin as it would have been great experience for him but I saw he was close to the team the full tournament.
"They are certainly two players who make the difference in the Premiership. We weren't able to put them together for a lot of games, just the two I think.
"Kevin is more than a number nine. He is involved in the creation zone and he can drop into other zones to help other attackers.
"He is really good against team that press high as he is able to keep the ball. Again he was a profile he missed as these type of players in this area are so important. But I'm so happy he's now going back and he could really help this final part of the season.
"I don't know what our experience at Hibs would have been like had we had them together. We can't think about what could have been or what was not.
"We did the best we could. But of course as a manager or a coaching staff, you want your best players available. We tried different things on how to arrive in the final third. If they had been fit, we may have been able to get some more points."
Zudas is keen to work with Maloney again despite their Hibs spell ending in disappointing circumstances, having built considerable experience at Lazio, Lupa Roma, Reggina 1914, Kolkheti Poti, Spartaki Tskhinvali, UTA Arad, Budapest Honvéd and Hajduk Split,
Scotland is still an option he'd be keen to explore, with a move south of the border a goal: "I would like to continue working with Shaun as we feel like the job was incomplete. It is one possibility for me to continue with him.
"In the meantime I am also searching and exploring something as I want to develop. I would prefer to stay in the UK as the leagues, players and clubs are who I would like to work with.
"Let's see what happens in December and January. The Premier League is the target but Scotland is also a league developing and a lot of Scottish players are going around Europe.
"That could be a good possibility to continue but the main target is England, not only the EPL as it might be too early, but there are really well-structured clubs in the Championship and League One."
