Influential Hull City midfielder Tom Huddlestone is likely to miss his side’s FA Cup third round clash with Middlesbrough after his haircut, which began on Saturday evening, looked set to continue into the weekend and possibly beyond.
Huddlestone, 27, began his haircut after scoring the fourth goal in his side’s rout of Fulham, but returned to the fray after only 20 minutes having had just one steely lock trimmed and tidied by the physio’s emergency secateurs.
Most observers expected Huddlestone to complete the haircut after the game, but the ex-Spurs man surprised fans by running out against Liverpool on Wednesday without his haircut having noticeably progressed, though sources close to Huddlestone insist that a lot of work was going on behind the scenes.
“Sunday and Monday were mostly to assess the situation and take hair samples,” Hull manager Steve Bruce told FourFourTwo. “Tuesday was shampooing day, and Wednesday was for a scalp massage, because you don’t want to be in the wrong frame of mind going into a haircut like this.
“Yesterday we started on the sides and the nape, but we ran into difficulty at about 6pm when the scissor-sharpener broke down and again around 9 when we ran out of pack conditioner.
“We’re back on track now, but he’s touch and go for Middlesbrough. We take all our players’ hair very seriously, and it’d be a tragedy if we rushed him back too soon with those beautiful curls only half-primped and one sideburn all out of whack.”
Once the haircut is complete, Huddlestone is expected to donate his hair to Matt Fryatt for charity.
