Craig Halkett finally sees the Hearts he thought he was joining in 2019

It's been almost three years but Craig Halkett finally recognises the Heart of Midlothian Football Club he had in his mind when committing to a pre-contract agreement to move from Livingston in 2019.

Though his upcoming employers were toiling at the time, excessive injury woes were largely to blame for Hearts taking a severe downturn under then-boss Craig Levein. Few could have predicted what was to come next, especially Halkett.

After recovering from an early Autumn injury in his first season, Halkett found himself in a side fighting relegation, a battle they would ultimately succumb to when a combination of the Covid-19 pandemic and a ghost email saw the club prematurely forced into the Championship.

Back in the second tier two years after Livi's promotion wasn't exactly what the Scotland hopeful had in mind when he made the 14-mile switch from Almondvale to Gorgie, not that he was entirely without blame. Even against weaker opposition in last season’s title-winning campaign, Halkett still wasn't reaching the level of consistency expected of him when the club secured his signature.

Craig Halkett signed a new two-and-a-half-year contract with Hearts earlier in 2022. Picture: SNS

This season has been a different animal, entirely.

Looking leaner and meaner, Halkett has been excellent throughout the campaign. He’s the rock at the centre of the Hearts back three and ranks third in the cinch Premiership for percentage of aerial duels won (per Wyscout). There’s zero doubt his absence has been keenly felt over the past few games as Robbie Neilson's side have gone from easily having the third-meanest defence in the league to shipping in nine goals in the last three fixtures..

Thankfully for his team-mates and regrettably for opponents, he is now back and ready – both for the present and the future. Speaking to the national press since signing a new two-and-a-half-year contract in January, Halkett stated his pleasure that the club were finally back to the level expected of them.

"I was really happy with that," he said of his extension. "It first got spoken about before the Christmas period. Obviously that's a really busy time for players with a lot of games so we just decided to say to the club we're happy for it to be on the back burner. Then the winter break came and that gave us the time to sit down, talk about everything and get it sorted. Thankfully it was.

"I'm really happy and really settled. Family life is good. That was obviously a big part of my decision, making sure everything was good for the family. This is me in my third full season here and there's another couple to come after that.

"When I first signed with Hearts it was about coming to a club which is big in Scotland, gets into the European places and plays at cup finals, stuff like that. Obviously I had a small taste of that with the Scottish Cup final a year and a half ago, but what happened happened and now Hearts is back to being the club I knew and thought I was signing for."

On signing on within a matter of days of Craig Gordon, Stephen Kinglsey and Michael Smith doing the same, he added: "It's huge. From the manager's point of view it wouldn't have been great for him if he's needing to replace three, four, five players. It's three of your back five already there in place. We know each other really well on and off the park so we've got a solid base to build on for next year."

Halkett is expected to make his return to the starting XI for Saturday's trip to St Mirren after missing the last six games through injury. During that stretch Hearts have won twice, only once in 90 minutes, drawn one and lost three. All of those defeats have come in the last three games, including a pair of humbling results to clubs who were bottom of the cinch Premiership table going into the encounter, Dundee and St Johnstone.

John Souttar also missed two games with an ankle injury, but he along with Halkett should join Stephen Kingsley in reuniting the club's strongest back three for the match against the Buddies.

"I'd had a few niggling injuries in the weeks prior [to the hamstring problem]. I felt like I was getting through games and then picking up another injury and it's something I've never really had in my career," he said.

"You never want to pick up injuries as players and miss any significant length of time. Then when it begins to happen to other players and you go from a situation where you'd have had a stable back four or back five for long periods then it can cause problems.

"You're never going to be happy if the team isn't doing so well and not picking up points whether you're playing or not. It's been difficult from the sides looking on, which was another reason to get my head down and work as hard as I could to get back. Now that I'm back and fully fit I'm just looking forward now to try and pick up as many points as we can.

"At the start [of my rehab] it was just about rest. On the side of that you're wanting to keep up your strength work so that when the actual hamstring healed you weren't going to be too far away. It was a lot about doing strength work and doing whatever cardio-vascular fitness you can without potentially injuring the hamstring, just so that when you were fully healed it wasn't going to be another two or three weeks before you were ready to play again.

"I wouldn't say it was too hard, was just about getting the work done and making sure that when you're back you're ready to go."

Message from the editor

Thank you for reading this article. If you haven't already, please consider supporting our sports coverage with a digital sports subscription.