Craig Halkett provides 'exciting' Hearts injury update as defender holds Jambos Champions League ambition
The defender has been out of action this season at Hearts.
Craig Halkett insists he has an ‘exciting’ couple of months ahead as he starts running again amid his long-term injury rehab.
The key centre-back injured his Achilles in May during the penultimate game of last season against Motherwell and has missed all of this term so far. He took up punditry duties for TNT Sports, who broadcast Hearts’ league phase opener in the Conference League on Thursday, a 1-1 draw at Tynecastle versus Danish side Nordsjaelland.
Halkett confirmed ahead of kick-off that he is back running five months on from his surgery to repair the issue. He is now happy to be ramping up his work over a return to play. The 31-year-old said: “I'm feeling great.
Craig Halkett injury latest
“My rehab's going really well. I'm five months post-op this week and just started back running. The physios are happy, the surgeon's happy, and we've got an exciting couple of months ahead to get back to full fitness.”
Head coach Wouter Vrancken is someone the Hearts defender has got to know over recent months. He feels the Jambos leader will have taken an encouraging approach with his players despite Nordsjaelland’s 86th minute leveller that deflected off Jamie McCart cancelling out Oisin McEntee’s opener, with a Premiership tussle versus Celtic this Sunday in mind. Halkett said: “He's pretty good to be fair.
“He doesn't get too high and he doesn't get too low. He would have been in telling the boys he was proud of them tonight, that it was a good performance. We’ve got a hectic schedule coming up so I don't think he'd have been too tough on the boys for losing the equaliser. He'll give encouragement. He'll know that we've got another massive game on Sunday and will just try and keep the confidence high.
“I think the boys put in a great effort for 85 or 86 minutes and unfortunately conceded that late goal, but like the manager said, it was a really good performance in and out of possession for a majority of the game. I think towards the end the boys’ legs started to tire a wee bit. We tried to freshen it up and bring some subs on but we couldn't keep them out for the equaliser. The boys will still take confidence from Thursday. We'll be looking forward to going back into the league on Sunday and hopefully trying to take some points off Celtic.”
Can Hearts compete in the Champions League?
Halkett was part of the Hearts that finished second under Derek McInnes last season as they booked Champions League qualifiers. Amid backing from investor Tony Bloom and modern recruitment strategies through Jamestown Analytics, the defender is enthused over Hearts’ direction of travel. They may have lost in top table qualifying versus Sturm Graz during the summer but Halkett sees no reason why the club shouldn’t be pushing for that competition in the short-term.
He added: “Last season in the league we did really well to get into the position we were in. We were only a couple of minutes away from winning the league. Obviously that was really tough to take but I think with the direction that the club's going in, I don't think getting into the Champions League for a team like Hearts should be a way in the future.
“It's something that we can hope to try and do in the next couple of seasons if we continue on the path that we're on at the moment. When you sign for Hearts, nights like Thursday and being at the top end of the table is where you want to be, so everyone at the club is pushing in the same direction. Things are good at the moment.”