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Hibs head coach Neil Lennon insists one month is long enough for playmaker Kris Commons to make his presence felt at Easter Road.
The 33-year-old made his debut for the Leith side in Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Morton after joining on an emergency loan deal from Celtic.
Lennon, who signed Commons for the Hoops in January 2011, was thrilled to recruit the attacking midfielder after injuries had stripped him of the services of John McGinn, Fraser Fyvie, Alex Harris and Dylan McGeouch.
With the Scotland internationalist out of contract next summer, Commons’ long-term future is in doubt but Lennon has backed the player to help strengthen Hibs’ bid to clinch the Championship title in the time he is with the Edinburgh club.
Lennon said: “I’m hoping he can have a big impact, he is quality player and we’re delighted to have him because we’re short of bodies in that midfield area.
“We don’t have him for a very long period of time but we felt it was important to get him up and going
“It’s good to get him for the time being so we’ll see how it develops over the next 28 days or so.
“We were short of bodies, we were pursuing a number of options and Celtic were good enough to do a deal with us and it suits both parties.
“We were depleted so Kris coming in strengthens that again.
“I think he grew into the game, we struggled to find any space for him in the first half.
“He started to find his range and good areas and the benefit of the 90 minutes and playing, don’t forget he’s only trained for one day, will do him the world of good moving forward.”
Hibs welcome Raith Rovers on Christmas Eve and Lennon admits he has been left with a selection headache after Jason Cummings climbed off the bench to notch a stunning equaliser at Cappielow on Saturday.
Cummings, who scored a wonderful free-kick two minutes after Gary Oliver had put the hosts ahead, had only regained his place in the side the week before in the victory over Dumbarton.
Fellow forward Grant Holt also caused problems when he was introduced against Ton and Lennon is considering making changes to the side for the clash with Rovers.
Lennon added: “Jason can be delighted with the impact he made, he looked a real threat and scored a fantastic goal.
“He is a match winner and he looked a lot sharper than he has done. I thought both the subs, him and Holt, did very well for us and we looked more threatening in the second half.”
