Little surprise as fringe quintet are told their time at Hibs is at an end

In addition, on-loan forward Alan Gow will return to Plymouth Argyle, the former Falkirk and Rangers player having found his time in Edinburgh blighted by injury.

He scored on his debut in the 5-1 Scottish Cup victory over Montrose then found himself limited to just three starts.

Of the departing players, Moroccan ace Benji was the longest serving having signed for Tony Mowbray. But it was under his successor John Collins the striker enjoyed his finest moment, scoring two goals in teh 5-1 demolition of Kilmarnock as Hibs lifted the CIS Insurance Cup three years ago.

But a fall-out with Hibs next manager Mixu Paatelainen saw Benji move to Belgium on loan for a season, returning last summer but finding himself playing a bit-part role as Anthony Stokes, Derek Riordan and Colin Nish became Hughes' preferred strikeforce, the trio scoring an impressive 52 goals between them.

Belgian Under-21 internationalist Ma-Kalambay was snapped up by Collins from Chelsea but his Easter Road career was chequered, the towering goalkeeper prone to making serious errors in high-profile matches, the arrival of Graham Stack last summer and Graeme Smith and Mark Brown during the January transfer window signalling the end was nigh.

Cregg was one of Hughes' first signings, the ex-Arsenal midfielder having played for the Hibs boss at Falkirk. But the signing of Republic of Ireland internationalist Liam Miller severely limited his first team appearances.

McCormack was persuaded to turn his back on a potential move to Celtic to remain at Easter Road but, in addition to being unable to force his way into the top team on a regular basis, the 21-year-old did himself no favours in twice finding himself in court and having to apologise to the Hibs support for his behaviour.

Today Hughes said: "I would like to thank all of them for their contributions to Hibernian and to wish them all the best in their future careers."