It's not good news about Ian Ashbee, again. His latest injury has somehow become more serious than initially anticipated, and his season seems to be over before it has started.
The Tigers skipper and consummate leader of men suffered anterior ligament damage in a knee in the early stages of City's defeat at Aston Villa in May. It ended his campaign there and then, but there were only three matches left to play and while it was clear he would be missed, his personal plight barely registered on any Tiger-centric radar as there was a relegation battle to be won.
Once it was indeed won, the summer months didn't offer much in terms of progress regarding Ashbee. Indeed, more attention was paid to Jimmy Bullard, similarly stricken in a knee but a far more ready source of copy for a national media who know who he is but have little interest or knowledge in an armband-wearing clogger with an unattractive Midlands accent who led the charge up the divisions.
Everyone locally, however, was looking forward to the day when both knees were mended and Ashbee lined up alongside Bullard in the centre of Hull City's midfield. Now, after Ashbee's new setback, you have to ask yourself whether this will happen at all.
Ashbee missed all but the first half dozen games of the 2005/6 season - our first back in the Championship - with a bone-wasting condition that threatened his mobility, let alone his career. Once again, he faces a long slog out of action and the club needs to decipher whether a 33 and a half year old Ashbee - as he will be next spring - will be of enough use to the team when he is ready to return. Even before the medics decided he needed surgery in the USA, his place as a football player looked under severe threat from Seyi Olofinjana, should the superb debut at Chelsea of skill and combativeness act as a sign of what's to come from the Nigerian.
Had Ashbee been ready at the end of next month, as had roughly been predicted by the club, then there may have been a case for his return either instead of or alongside Olofinjana. A nine-month lay-off may be one too many for this wonderful figurehead for players everywhere, who began his term with the Tigers in 2002 and has captained them in all four divisions (and is uniquely the only player to score in all four).
The one thing we should all bear in mind is that almost everyone has written off Ashbee at least once, and many more than once. This would have been through injury, form, competence or a mix of more than one or even all three. Each time he has returned to prove all visible detractors wrong.
It would be some feat for him to do so again, but not impossible in the slightest. What we can say, with both relief for the team's standards and a heavy heart for Ashbee personally, is that this may well be the first time he will not actually be missed.
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