Greek star Christos Karipidis is winning his fitness battle for Hearts' crunch clash against Dundee United this weekend.

The 26-year-old was laid low by a flu virus last week and was forced to sit out Saturday's 1-1 draw with St Mirren at Tynecastle, captain Robbie Neilson slotting in alongside Eggert Jonsson in the centre of the Jambos' defence.

However, the good news for boss Csaba Laszlo is that Christos has been steadily improving over the past few days and is hoping for an imminent return to training as he targets involvement in the Tannadice encounter.

Laryea Kingston, however, will sit out the trip to Tayside after being stretchered off moments after coming on as a half-time substitute against the Buddies.

The Ghana international has a problem with his hamstring, although hospital scans will determine the full extent of the injury.

Saulius Mikoliunas, meanwhile, suffered no ill effects from his first outing in almost four months on Saturday.

The Lithuanian was a surprise inclusion in the squad for the weekend after recovering from a serious knee ligament injury and made his long-awaited return when replacing Michael Stewart in the second half.

"It felt good to be back playing again but obviously it was a disappointing finish to the game for us," said Miko.

"Maybe if I had scored the chance I had, the game would have been over. It would have been great to have got the victory but we're still confident for the rest of the season."

Off the pitch, and there is a charity race night being staged by the Edinburgh Charity Game on Friday (7.30pm) at the Minto Hotel. Tickets cost £5 and include a buffet.

On Hearts.TV today, catch all the post-match reaction from Saturday's Tynecastle clash.