Head coach Derek McInnes confirmed that goalkeeper Liam McFarlane has been recalled from his loan at Alloa Athletic, following an injury to Ryan Fulton.
Looking ahead to the Jambos’ match against Motherwell, McInnes revealed that Fulton will be out for a considerable period of time with a groin tear.
Young stopper McFarlane, who recently signed a new contract until the summer of 2028, has now returned and McInnes added that Hearts are keeping an eye on the market, ahead of the conclusion of the transfer window.
Speaking to the media at the pre-match press conference, McInnes said:
“Ryan Fulton's out for three to four months with a groin tear, quite a significant tear, and he got that last Friday in training.
“Craig Gordon is a wee bit longer term. Craig is just doing bits and pieces with Paul Gallacher and the goalkeeping department. But not putting consecutive days together at the minute, so I think he's getting closer.
“I think Craig's a lot more positive about it, and I think everybody's starting to breathe a wee bit easier. We seem to be coming to an end point, but there's still no guarantees or timelines yet for me and hopefully over the next few weeks, he'll be back in full training.
“We've brought young Liam McFarlane back from Alloa, we recalled him today. It's something that we were thinking about, so that kind of settles us down in terms of numbers and options.
“And as I say, we'll just continue to keep abreast of that situation at the minute and see where we're at. We're looking [in the transfer market]. I think it would be remiss not to at the minute. So, we're just having a look.
“Whether we can land one that we feel can come in, we'll see. But I think with Ryan's injury, it's probably kind of accelerated that.”
Elsewhere on the injury front, Jamie McCart and Kenneth Vargas continue to make positive strides, but there was a further setback for Finlay Pollock.
“Jamie McCart is still working his way back slowly, but again, I think when we come out of the international break, after the next two league games, he'll be well up to speed, all being well.
“Kenny Vargas has a slight hip strain, but again, I think he's one that will train fully next week.
“Finlay Pollock has had a wee setback during the week. Which is a blow for the boy and obviously us, he's put so much hard work into it, he's not had a fair run into it at all. So, it's something we've had re-examined and we're just waiting on the results to see where that's at.”
The Jambos welcome a new look Motherwell to Tynecastle this Saturday as they look to bounce back from a disappointing League Cup exit to St Mirren in Paisley last weekend.
“We’re fine. Other people might need to lift their spirits, but we're fine. Of course we wanted to avoid defeat.
“We lost a game on penalties. I thought for 75 minutes we were the better team. We’re not going to dwell too much on it. We're two days away from the next game. We've moved on from Saturday, as disappointing as it was. We'd set high standards for ourselves, and we didn't quite meet it.
“I spoke after the game about reasons why we didn't get to our best level. But listen, we move on now. I'm not going to have this negativity hanging about. We need to be ready to bounce back quickly. We need to have really positive mindsets across the board and move quickly on to the next one.”
You can watch Derek’s press conference in full on Hearts TV.
