Head coach Neil Critchley confirmed that Stephen Kingsley is to undergo surgery on his hamstring and will be unavailable for ‘a significant period of time.’
Kingsley, along with Frankie Kent was forced off in the first half of last weekend’s draw with Aberdeen and while the news is better regarding Kent, Critchley admits it’s a blow to lose the Scot.
Speaking to the media ahead of tomorrow’s William Hill Premiership match against Dundee, Critchley said:
“Stephen will be having surgery on his hamstring, so he'll be facing a significant period of time out, which is obviously unfortunate for him and us. With Frankie, it’s better news, he's done some training at the back end of the week and we're still hoping that he'll be in contention for being involved tomorrow.
“It'll be months, [for Stephen], whether that is this season or going into next season, I wouldn't want to say yet, because he's got to have the surgery and we have to obviously see how that goes, but it will be a significant period of time.”
The Jambos welcome Dundee to Gorgie tomorrow and while the aim will be to move off the bottom of the table, Critchley admits the league position isn’t something he’s concerned with, as he prepares for a busy December.
“I'm just focusing on the next game, he continued. “I think since we've joined the club in the past two months, we've had improvement in terms of our performances and now we've got a period of games coming up that we need to start putting some W’s on the board. It's an important period, both domestically and in Europe. We have a chance to build, and things could look significantly different in a few weeks' time.
“Honestly, I don't look at the table because I can't affect the table. I can affect how the players train, how we prepare, improving the individuals, improving the team and if we do that, then the results will take care of itself and ultimately then the league will take care of itself.
"They finished sixth last season. Obviously, they’ve got a manager who knows the Scottish game inside out and it will be a tough game. They're in a good moment but we're at home and it's up to us to show what we're about.”
You can watch Neil’s press conference in full over on Hearts TV.
