Returning injured duo Tom Eaves and Jon Toral were on target for Hull City earlier today when they drew 2-2 with local rivals Huddersfield Town in a behind-closed-doors friendly at City's training ground.

The Tigers played their first of three friendlies this week in the run up to the restart of the EFL Championship on June 20th, where they will face relegation-threatened Charlton Athletic at the KCOM in the first of the remaining nine fixtures.

The Hull Daily Mail spoke to McCann about the friendly this afternoon and he gave some information about the game, although details were scarce.

“We’ve mixed the teams up today and tomorrow,” said McCann. “We’ve got 75 minutes into a lot of players. Ingram, McKenzie, MacDonald, De Wijs, Elder, Kane, Batty, Toral, Eaves, Scott and Wilks".

Fans will be keen to hear that players such as De Wijs, Kane and Toral came through the game unscathed, as injuries have had a massive contribution to the Tigers' dismal run of form from the New Year until the season suspension in March.

They will be further encouraged that Angus McDonald is back in the first team picture after being out since being diagnosed with bowel cancer back in August 2019. 

McCann also told the local press that the result could have been more positive, had he not been so cautious with the more experienced players in the squad.

“Jon Toral got 60 minutes, but the rest got 75. When they all came off we were winning 2-0. Toral scored and Eaves scored. We brought all the young lads on at that point and Huddersfield got it back to 2-2".

The sound of Toral possibly starting to hit form will be music to the ears of City fans. Clearly a talented player, the ex-Barcelona and Arsenal star has struggled with injuries throughout his time in East Yorkshire.

In addition; whilst fans will not necessarily care about the result of the first of the run of friendlies, they may be quietly optimistic about the team hitting the ground running in less than two weeks time when the season does finally restart after over three months suspension.

What was revealing about the post-match interview with McCann is that  that different players will travel to Sheffield United for another behind-closed-doors friendly. He was quoted:

“The rest of the boys will play at Sheffield United tomorrow, with the same plan for the younger boys to have the last 15 or 20 minutes.” 

Tigers fans will no doubt be keen to follow the progress of the team tomorrow, with the likes of Reece Burke and Eric Lichaj - much missed in defense in the games before the shut down - due to make a return, as well as players like Leonardo da Silva Lopes, Martin Samuelson  and Jackson Irvine all in line to play in South Yorkshire against The Blades tomorrow.

After that, City will play Newcastle United at the weekend in the third friendly of the week.

Tigers fans - are you encouraged by these reports? Are you starting to be optimistic about staying up?