Newell: I'm Feeling Stronger Every Day

Joe Newell is feeling ‘really good’ fitness-wise after completing another 26 minutes from the substitutes’ bench against Hearts last weekend.

After three hundred and thirty six days spent on the sidelines riddled with setbacks and difficult moments, the Hibernian captain admits that he’s back with a smile on his face once again.

Having finally returned to action at the end of 2025, Newell has taken his time and managed his minutes on the pitch, and is now gunning to make up for lost time by helping the Hibees side secure a return to European football next season.

“I'm feeling good. I’m feeling really good, to be honest. I've felt a lot better the last few weeks and months,” said Newell.

“I've had a couple of bounce games at the training ground that have really helped me, in terms of my minutes and my own personal fitness, so I'm feeling a lot better and just dying to get back involved and help the Club as much as I can.”

Newell conceded our Edinburgh derby defeat was painful to take but has full belief in the squad's ability to bounce back against Celtic this weekend at Easter Road.

Our No11 has called for everyone to show no fear and replicate our historic performance at Celtic Park in February by securing back-to-back wins over Martin O’Neill’s side for the first time since September 2007.

He added: “It's never nice to lose. They're always tough weeks, the first few days especially, for everyone individually, and when you're away from the Club, you don't even want to leave your house, really.

“They're massive games, and the games that you love the most playing for this football Club, and when it doesn't go your way, it hurts a lot.

“But a good thing about football is it moves on quickly. You've always got something else around the corner, so we’ve come in and had a debrief about it, and our full focus is on the next game.

“It was hard to pick the bones of it because it was so out of the ordinary, so it was more about the mental side of it and picking everyone up individually and collectively and remaining together.

“I think we've been confident all year in our abilities. Over the course of the season, it's obviously been up and down throughout, but we know the quality of the team, and on any given day, I think we've shown that. 

“We've gone to Celtic Park and won, so the confidence is there, and there's no reason why it shouldn't be.

“It’s not like we're in a bad spell, and we look like we don't know where the next result is going to come from. Not at all. So, on that side of things, it's quite easy to try and remain confident.

“There's no better way to pick yourself up after a derby defeat than another home game. When you play for this Club, you're expected to do as well as you can, and we've got our own targets, our own goals that we haven't achieved yet, and we need to.

“We'll be doing our utmost to win the game of football - it's as simple as that.”