Bristol City assistant head coach Chris Hogg has confirmed that Ross McCrorie will be out for a period with a hamstring issue following his early withdrawal during the Robins’ 0-0 draw with Leeds United on Saturday.
Hogg spoke ahead of a trip to Deepdale to face Preston North End this coming weekend and amid what has become a mini crisis in left back options, with McCrorie being forced to play on the opposite side to his usual right back role in recent times.
In his pre-match press conference on Wednesday, Hogg stressed the importance of the City squad’s versatility and offered some light on the injury front, confirming that Haydon Roberts and Rob Dickie are both back in training.
“McCrorie has done his other hamstring as we spoke about on Saturday,” confirmed Hogg.
“We’re hoping it’s more mid-term than long term at the moment so I think that will become apparent again in the next couple of days. But the signs early on are that it’s more mid-term which is good news for him and for us. He’s been through the mill a little bit in terms of the last season he’s had.”
McCrorie was signed in the summer of 2023 by former manager Nigel Pearson and suffered an almost instant setback which kept him out for the first half of the 2023/24 campaign.
It wasn’t until last January that the Scot made his debut, with it coming against this weekend’s opponents Preston in a 2-0 loss at Deepdale.
Despite yet another hitch in the road so early in the season, Hogg has remained positive about the squad’s ability to step up in certain players’ absences.
“We have to be adaptable,” stressed former Hibernian defender Hogg.
“We’ve got players who can fill various roles in multiple positions. The good news is that Haydon Roberts is back training, Rob Dickie is back training, so we’ve got a couple who are back training and managing to merge them back into the group which is a real positive for us.
“It’ll be a case of training, seeing how they look… making sure that they’ve done enough to try and be back and part of the squad. They both look in good condition and the medical staff and the sports science staff have done a good job with them. It’s been great to have them back with us on a personal level in terms of what they bring as characters but also their football qualities. Time will tell on those two. It will just be assessing as we move along.”
Hogg informed the press that Rob Atkinson was back in training as well after a few U21 games in action, but the likes of Cam Pring, Scott Twine, Sam Bell and Ayman Benarous remain out for different further periods respectively.
With the Reds now unbeaten in seven games following their point against Leeds, they will be facing a Preston side who are on a run of their own after going five matches without defeat.
After an early managerial change, former boss Ryan Lowe leaving just one game into this campaign, the Lilywhites brought in former promotion winning manager Paul Heckingbottom.
Sitting 16th in the table after mixed fortunes so far this season, it’s clear to Hogg that is aware of Heckingbottom-led Preston’s threat.
“Preston’s always been a tough place to go,” Hogg emphasised.
“Paul Heckingbottom’s done a terrific job wherever he’s been and he’s a manager that I’ve got the utmost respect for.
“They’re on a good run themselves and I think if you look at how they play, they’ll be really aggressive. Any Paul Heckingbottom team is. He gets them well-motivated and has them really well-organised and structured because he’s a good coach.
“The challenge for us is to go and match up to whatever the physical demands are but then it’s about having the bravery and the quality then to go and hurt them and try and put them in positions and situations that are uncomfortable for them. We have to carry the traits we’ve had over the last couple of weeks and throughout the season of being hard to beat.”
Becoming hard to beat has been a trait that City have pride themselves on over the course of their run, as has discovering different ways to play.
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The last three matches have seen the Robins have to manage games very differently due the state they have found themselves in and have impressively managed to come away with points from all three.
“Throughout the season, there will be performances, even at the top level, from teams who go through patches where it’ll all come together, and there will also be games where you’ll have to be hard to beat and you won’t have much of the ball,” Hogg was keen to recognise.
“There will be games where you’ll be dominant with the ball and unless you’re Man City, you have these fluctuations in the season depending on who you’re up against. The pleasing thing is we’ve been consistent with that in terms of we’ve had to play various ways. The last ten days we’ve had three different types of performances.
“We’ve had Middlesbrough where we scored goals winning the ball high up and then defended with a professional performance in the second half to see the game out. Tuesday against Stoke we went two nil down and showed resilience to come back and some of our attacking play was really good without getting our rewards for it.
“You look again at Leeds; I talked pregame about wanting to try and take the game to Leeds and we showed signs of that in the first half. Leeds then gained control but again we showed our resilience in terms of being hard to beat.
“You have to play multiple ways at times to get results in games and the pleasing thing for us is we’ve shown that this point in the season, throughout these ten, 12 games we’ve had, we can do each of everything. It’s just us blending it together and going, who do we want to be?”