Gray On International Break ‘Reset’ & United Challenge

Hibs Head Coach David Gray is excited to get back to competitive action in the William Hill Premiership, following the September international break.

In total, nine First Team players were away over the international break representing the Club across the world. Whilst half the squad were away, Gray detailed what the last couple of weeks have looked like at East Mains.

“The international break has given us a bit of time to reset, rest and in theory get some more time on the training pitch with the players. On the other hand, you’ve got players going away on international duty, so that cuts the numbers down a bit on the pitch.

“But we managed to give the boys some time off, get some good work into the lads that were still here and as coaches, we got some time to reflect and work on the areas that we can improve on moving forward.

“For us, selfishly we want to make sure that everyone returns fit and healthy. It was good for some of the lads to get more minutes – the likes of Thibault Klidjé who had two good, solid performances and Grant Hanley who did very well with Scotland.

“We’ve got players who have travelled all over the world, travelling long hours through different time zones, playing varying amounts of minutes and arriving back at different times – so as coaches, we need to piece all that together to make sure we are fit and fresh for the game on Saturday.

“The players who have been here have trained very well. The Club is in a very good place at the moment, we don’t have any distractions now in terms of European football. We know if we want to experience nights like that again, then we need to perform domestically, and that starts in the league tomorrow against Dundee United.”

It’s third against fourth this weekend, with both sides coming into this one off the back of similar starts to the 2025/26 campaign.

Jim Goodwin’s side also had to juggle European football with domestic duties and has added a number of new faces to squad for the new campaign. Whilst Gray is looking forward to the game, he is under no illusions of the tough challenge that lies ahead.

“We know it will be a really tough task, Jim (Goodwin) has put together a very strong and physical side, along with retaining a lot of players from last season, so it has all the ingredients to be a great game.

“Every time we played Dundee United last season, they are always extremely tight games and they never traditionally followed the form. We need to match their fitness and physicality and the quality they have from wide areas – so we need to be ready for that.

“Our focus is on knowing that we are in a really good place, we’ve got a good squad, we’re at home and these are the games you want to be playing in. We’re close to another sell out I believe, and I know it will be a great atmosphere for everyone inside Easter Road – it’s one we are all really looking forward to.”