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Christophe Berra admits he is "touch and go" for Sunday's final Scottish Premierleague encounter with Aberdeen at Pittodrie but has dismissed any fears that the side, with or without him, will not be looking to do a "professional" job up north.
The 20-year-old defender took time out from his recovery from injury to talk with Hearts News this lunchtime and firstly expressed his views on last's weeks narrow 2-1 loss against Celtic.
He said: "It was a good performance by the guys against Celtic. We were unlucky, especially with the penalty decision but it is one of those things. You either get those decisions or you don't."
Looking ahead with confidence then to the match against Aberdeen Christophe explained the injury which has kept him out for the last three weeks and is still niggling him.
"I am touch and go for Sunday. I have had an ankle knock but I managed to play in the reserves on Tuesday [against Dunfermline]. Unfortunately I took another knock after about 40 minutes of that game. I tried to run it off after half time but I had to stop as my ankle was quite sire.
"Hopefully I can train tomorrow and if the ankle stands up fine then I will be available for selection."
If he recovers Christophe is likely to start at Pittodrie alongside Andy Webster in the centre of defence given that captain with added responsibility Steven Pressley is suspended following his red card against Celtic.
With Aberdeen still involved in the race for a UEFA Cup spot the match takes on extra significance but he know Hearts will be giving 100 percent.
"We have got to be professional. Other people have been saying that we might be slacking because we have nothing to play for but that is not true.
"We definitely won't be slacking, we want to go up there and win and put in a good performance for the supporters and try and end the season on a high."
As the season does come to a close it is time for reflection and when Christophe reflects on 2004/05 personally there are a lot of good memories for him. He earned his first Scotland under-21 cap against Italy in Pavia two months ago and was also called up to the Scotland Future squad which travelled to Austria in April.
Christophe said: "It has been a good season for me and I think I have done quite well. I have progressed and hopefully I can keep progressing.
"It was good experience with the Future squad and the under-21s and I want to come back fit and raring to go for next season."
Christophe is due to meet up with the Scotland under-21 squad again for the upcoming fixtures against Moldova at Firhill on June 3 and Belarus in the Tractor Stadium, Minsk four days later injury permitting.
The one place where Christophe perhaps has not appeared as often as he would like is at first team level for Hearts. He is philosophical about that however as he looks to build on seven starts this season in the future.
"I want to push for a starting spot week in and week out but with Elvis and Webby ahead of me I know it will be tricky.
"But they are great to learn from and I know what I am capable of and I will just keep biding my time and doing what I am doing."
So the future for Christophe looks bright and he believes the future is bright for the club as a whole, stating that he was an impressed spectator in the stands last night as a young Hearts side went down 3-1 to Hibs in the East of Scotland Shield.
"Both teams tried to play football and it was an entertaining game although the fact that a lot of the guys had played on Tuesday didn't help as their tiredness showed.
"However, guys like Lee [Wallace] and Jason [Thompson] have taken the same route as me into the first team set up and hopefully more and more young players can come through and challenge for places next season," he concluded.
