Coventry City sweating on fitness of wingers for pivotal Hull City clash
The two sides meet in a must-win encounter at the CBS Arena in midweek
Coventry City head coach Mark Robins admits there are concerns over the fitness of Fabio Tavares ahead of Wednesday night’s crunch meeting with Hull City. The young winger picked up an injury in their FA Cup semi-final with Manchester United on Sunday.
Tavares came off the bench at Wembley Stadium after an hour and played a key role in helping the Sky Blues fight back from 3-0 down against United to stun the Red Devils by taking the contest to extra time, before losing on penalties, setting up Ellis Simms’ goal.
Unfortunately for the Portuguese-born youngster, he limped out midway through extra-time and had to be replaced by striker Matty Godden for the final 15 minutes at the national stadium, and is now a doubt for the Sky Blues’ huge Championship clash with the Tigers, which both sides know they must win if they’re to retain any hope of making the play-offs.
“He was injured. It was his ankle but I don’t know how bad it is,” Robins said. “He just wasn’t moving right. He wanted to stay on but he just wasn’t moving right, so we had to try and make that change there because that right-hand side was looking really profitable for us.”
On the subject of the performance which almost saw the Sky Blues make the final, only for a dramatic VAR decision ruling out their fourth goal to send the tie to penalties, Robins was full of praise for his side. He has warned that his players have that level of performance in their locker.
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“I am proud of everything they have done,” he continued. “The support was absolutely fantastic because if it had been the other way around I don’t think it would have been the same (from United fans). It was a great atmosphere and I went through a whole range of emotions, that’s for sure.“Any given day when we can perform like that – we performed like Manchester United for that last hour – and that’s what I am proud of; the quality that we showed and the courage we showed on the ball to play through them, playing round them and getting good quality in the box and creating chances. If (Victor) Torp’s shot had gone in from the Onana save, that would have been special.”
