The Australian midfielder will miss some time due to injury.
The injury blow to Hearts has come from the announcement that Cammy Devlin, a midfielder, may not return until after the winter break. A worse-than-anticipated ankle injury is expected to keep him out of the game for around a month, maybe extending into the three-week Premiership break in January.
After a scan revealed damage to the area, the 25-year-old will likely be out for four weeks, according to medical officials. Although he won’t be traveling with Hearts to Aberdeen on Saturday, striker Liam Boyce may be able to recuperate from a leg knock in time.
Boycie will have a huge day on Friday; we’ll have to wait and see. Head coach of the Hearts Steven Naismith acknowledged that it was a race against time. “As a precaution, Cammy had a scan. He may need to stay for a month because the damage is more than what he was experiencing the day after he returned.”
Naismith welcomed four experienced figures back into his squad for Wednesday night’s meeting with Rangers – Craig Gordon, Craig Halkett, Barrie McKay and Nathaniel Atkinson. The competition is instantly strengthened by their return from injury.
“It works well. Subconsciously, it probably improves training quality “explained Naismith. Players will be attempting to assemble the squad, determine who is available, how many make the squad, and whom am I competing with for a spot on the squad? It undoubtedly gives each person that laser-like focus.”
Additionally, he is prepared to lose favor by excluding some players. That’s a component of it! That’s what I’ve recently had to cope with. All you have to do is be truthful,” he stated. “These choices are not subjective. It’s a football choice, and I fully understand that it could alter from week to week. The days of consistently fielding the same team and winning are long gone. That plays a part to build momentum but the tactics involved in the games are so refined that small margins make big differences.
“Against the Rangers, we started Nat Atkinson right away. It was a big ask but he’s got good experience and the opportunity to go more offensive at half-time gave us that leeway to take him back out. He took a solid forty-five minutes to warm up. Alex Lowry comes back into the squad. It’s competition but this game is different. We’ve played Aberdeen twice since I’ve been in charge and had two good results playing a different shape.”
After their four-game winning Premiership run was ended by Rangers, the Hearts management team must decide whether to continue with a three-man defence or change to a four at Pittodrie. At the other end of the pitch, only St Johnstone and Livingston have scored less league goals than Hearts this season. However, the Edinburgh club sit third in the table.
“I feel we have created good chances in a lot of games but just not scored,” said Naismith. “On Wednesday we had a couple of opportunities where we should have made an extra pass, or somebody takes too many touches to get their shot off.
“When I first took over, we were good at getting shots off and taking chances. We want to do that but I’m pretty comfortable with that because I think we have players here who can score goals and are sharp enough around the box to score goals. As long as we keep winning, that will click into action at some point.”
GET MORE NEWS ON HALFTIMENEWS.CO.UK