Brentford's Aaron Hickey suffers injury setback after thigh surgery

Brentford full-back Aaron Hickey will miss most of the 2024–25 season after undergoing thigh surgery.

Hickey moved to west London from Bologna for £14 million in July 2022 and had an encouraging debut season, making 26 top-flight appearances and helping Thomas Frank's side to an impressive ninth-place finish.

The Scotland international started nine of the first 10 games of the 2023/24 season, but suffered a thigh injury in training in late October that required surgery. There were hopes he would return before the end of the season, but he suffered a setback in February. Hickey did not play again and missed his country's participation in the European Championships. His last appearance was in Brentford's 2-0 win over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on 28 October.

Hickey resumed light training this summer, but did not play in any of the pre-season friendlies or the first two games of the season.

On Thursday, Brentford announced that the 22-year-old had suffered another setback and would miss most of the season after undergoing further thigh surgery.

“The operation involved removing the previous repair stitches and making a new tendon repair,” said head physio Nick Stubbings. “Now we want to start fresh and help Aaron regain his previous level of health and performance.”

This is a major blow for Brentford's head coach Frank, who is already without his first choice left-back Rico Henry. The 27-year-old tore his cruciate ligament in a 1-0 defeat to Newcastle United last September and did not play again last season. Henry has sped up his recovery and will play in a closed-door friendly next week.

This means Brentford's only recognised full-back is Mads Roerslev, although centre-backs Kristoffer Ajer and Sepp van den Berg could provide replacements.

(Andrew Kearns – CameraSport via Getty Images)