Derek McInnes' Hearts plans for injured stars at Spanish training camp shared and why going abroad is correct

Derek McInnes will look to get as many Hearts players on the training pitch this week in La Manga as he can - with everyone set for a role down the title race home stretch.

The Tynecastle head coach and his players jetted out to Spain on Sunday for a mid-season training camp in Spain, having watched a previous trip to Dubai collapse last month amid rising tensions in the Middle-East. Their work in the region of Murcia in south-eastern Spain will involve injured players upping their load if they are able, ahead of a return to action on April 26th against Hibs.

Hearts planned to have Oisin McEntee scanned after he went off in the weekend win over Motherwell with a suspected hamstring problem, while others like Harry Milne and Craig Gordon also missed the match. Stuart Findlay, Lawrence Shankland and Cammy Devlin are just some of the key players to have returned from absences in the last few weeks, and McInnes says work will commence to get everyone into as good a condition as possible for five defining matches.

What is Hearts injury latest?

”If they can train, they'll train,” McInnes told the Evening News. “To what level we'll see. The injured players will come with us and we'll try and top up their work, the ones that can do that, and we'll try and top up their work. We're going to need everybody. If anybody's fit and able to run and train, then they'll be out there to try and top up their work, and we'll try and get the balance right with the ones that have played the majority of the minutes. Boys like Claudio Braga who've had a full calendar year playing.

“We just need time to maybe make sure he's okay but we're down to train for four sessions. We'll do our gym sessions every day, well, they will and I won't! But we'll get a chance to be about each other. The pre-season work was very important for us and we started the season like a train. We're hoping for something similar for when we'll come back. For me, hands down, it's the right decision to recharge, get around each other, have some important meetings individually and as a team and then see where it takes us.”

A 3-1 victory over Motherwell ensured Hearts’ unbeaten streak in the league at Tynecastle continued. They launched a late comeback after going down a goal to Emmanuel Longelo’s opener as Braga’s effort got them level. Shankland’s penalty has sparked debate after Pierre Landry Kabore was kicked in the head by Motherwell defender Stephen Welsh and the Burkina Faso international found the net soon after. Strength of character was something that pleased McInnes to no end as they found a way to win against a team they hadn’t defeated prior to that.

Hearts 3-1 Motherwell assessed

“The game was in the balance, there's no two ways about it,” explained McInnes. “I thought we actually started the first half well enough and I thought we spooked them, didn't let them play their natural game. I thought we had good moments of pressure and brought a bit of anxiety to them, put the keeper under a bit of pressure ,and their defence. We just never made the most of that. Obviously they had a couple of shots from distance in that space that opens up in front of your back lot. And it was mostly done through, not through our pressing work, it was mostly done through us just giving the ball away and losing with duels.

“I thought we were far more aggressive in the second half and I thought the game was tight throughout. It was a really tough game for everybody. I thought it was a decent game from both sets of players, putting a lot into it. There's no doubt they scored on transition, I think as soon as Ibrahim Said wiggles it away in the halfway line and gets facing our goal, they've got so much speed that can unnerve you, and they've been good enough to pick us off. But it was a tough spell that and we've got it all to do. Obviously we don't normally go behind here at Tynecastle, it's unusual, but one of the teams we have went behind, it's Motherwell.

“And for the second time we've managed to find three goals against a team who very rarely lose goals. So I think that says a lot about when we dug deep, the character of the team, the determination of the team, the motivation of the team and it's great all three strikers played a part in that. Obviously Braga gets us on our way, but at 1-1 each there was nobody on our team settling for that. It was all about can we get the next one, and I thought we were really good after we equalised.

“Credit to Motherwell , they still try and come forward, and none more so than the third goal we pick them off with Kabore. The big moment in the game is the penalty. Obviously Lawrence was adamant that Kabore had been kicked in the head, and therefore if you get a kick in the head or it's a penalty kick. For me, with what I've been told, it seems it was the right decision and I'm just glad we've managed to find a way to win.”