Liam Manning has confirmed that Ayman Benarous is "heading in the right direction" as he looks to overcome his latest injury setback but admits Adam Murphy may not play first-team football for Bristol City this season.

Benarous, a product of the Robins' academy, hasn't played for the first team since April 2022 having suffered successive ACLs. After completing his rehab, the attacking midfielder was involved in pre-season in 2023 and featured for the Under-21s before suffering the first of many hamstring issues.

The 21-year-old's latest issue occurred in an Under-21s clash with Sheffield Wednesday in August and he has not featured for the Young Robins since. With just a few months left on his contract at Ashton Gate, Manning admits the versatile youngster is still injured and the Robins will have to be "careful" with his recovery.

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"He's actually been away for some of his treatment recently for a change of setting and environment," Manning explained on Wednesday afternoon. "I actually sat with him this morning to discuss and go through it and he's heading in the right direction.

"I think when you've had the volume of injuries he's had in the same area that he's had, it makes it more difficult, but I think the biggest bit of the conversation we've had and knowing Ayman's character extremely well, is he's going to give it absolutely everything to give it the best shot possible of coming back.

"We're here to support him and do everything we can to try and help him do that. He's still injured, but he's expecting hopefully in the next kind of three or four weeks to be building things up. Then it's a case of seeing how he responds, that's always the challenge of putting time on it. You up the stage you're at and if the body doesn't respond great, obviously it delays things and you can sometimes go quicker if it responds better.

"We have to work off what the players present, but we also have to be a little bit more careful of the fact that he's obviously got a history of it as well."

Another player who has been stuck on the sidelines of the Robins High Performance Centre for an extended period of time is Adam Murphy. The Ireland youth international joined City from St Patrick's Athletic on a permanent basis last summer but is yet to be named in a first-team squad, with his minutes in the Under-21s also limited.

The 19-year-old did travel with Manning's squad to Portugal this summer when the Robins completed a pre-season training camp abroad, but injuries have prevented the midfielder from competing for a place in the City team so far this season.

Although Manning was reluctant to put an exact time frame on when exactly the teenager could make his maiden bow in first-team colours, he did reveal Murphy could have to wait until next season as he urged the midfielder to "keep working".

"Murph's got to keep his head down," the Reds coach admitted. "Obviously, he was unfortunate in pre-season to pick up the injury and he's had a few since he's been here, very stop-start. Again, that's the bit for Murph, it's building up load, adapting to the intensity, the way of working etc.

"Murph's one that's got to keep working. I think so [it could be next season he plays first-team football]. I think when you look at it, just in terms of the volume of games he's played, even at under-21s level. It's a big jump from under-21s to first team so I think he needs to concentrate on maintaining fitness and playing games."

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