The reason Kieron Bowie is relishing relentless summer as Hibs star gears up for Europa League push

Daily Record

14-07-2025

The season starts next week for David Gray's men with the first leg against Midtjylland
Kieron Bowie has barely had any time off after earning a dream Scotland debut this summer.
But the striker admits taking a break was the last thing he wanted after being hit by a frustrating injury lay-off in his debut campaign at Hibs.
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The 22-year-old was left playing catch-up for much of the season after suffering a recurrence of a hamstring injury in September just weeks after recovering from his previous problem.
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That kept him out for four months and Bowie only managed five league starts as Hibs finished third.
But that was still enough to earn a first cap against Liechtenstein as part of June's friendly double header.
And with next Thursday's Europa League first leg at Midtjylland just around the corner, the former Fulham and Raith man is relishing his relentless fixture schedule.
Bowie said: 'It's mad because for the lads that were away on international duty we've only been in for just over a week and then we've got Midtjylland in under two weeks' time.
'It's a very quick turnaround but we feel in a good place and just need to get back to our fittest and get playing well.
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'I think I had around three weeks off so it's not long. I've played in England before obviously, and that's Tuesday-Saturday, Tuesday-Saturday.
'It's relentless down there so I've been used to it previously but then obviously with my injury and stuff it's sort of taken a toll on my body.
'I had two weeks off after the Rangers game and then we were away for eight or nine days and then I had another week-and-a-half off, two weeks off after that.
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'It was good from the club to let us have that extra break when the other lads were in a week earlier than us.
'It's good to have that time off but you can't really switch off when you've got two toddlers at home. To be honest I didn't really want that time off anyway.
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'I feel like at the end of the season I was just getting into the gear I'm in and I feel like now I just need to do as much as I can and just play the best I can play.
'I'm hoping just to try to get back to fit as I can and be able to adapt to being able to play lots of games.'
The former U21 international certainly wasn't going to moan after earning promotion to the full senior set-up. He added: 'To play for Scotland it's just an honour and then hopefully in the future I can get more call-ups and we'll see what happens.
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'My family unfortunately did not get over, they just watched it on the TV. It's a long way to go, just to go to Liechtenstein and then not even sure if I'm going to play.'
Bowie and his Hibs team-mates will get the chance to build on their fitness in today's closed door clash at Bournemouth.
And the marksman is relishing the start of the competitive action in Denmark.
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He added: 'I want to do as much as I can in the league but then also now to play in Europe is a big thing for us as a club and hopefully I can do well in that as well.
'No matter who we got in the draw, it was always going to be a tough opponent.
'We have to do as much as we can to prepare and get ourselves ready for that game.
'In terms of my fitness I'm definitely a lot closer to being at peak now, especially with a pre- season. Hopefully I can look to more goals this season.'