Hearts boss Robbie Neilson delivers good news on injury front with Josh Ginnelly ready for return

Hearts boss Robbie Neilson has delivered good news on the injury front. Picture: SNS

The Championship leaders take on the Scottish champions a week on Sunday in the Hampden Park showdown and if the team come through Saturday’s league fixture with Queen of the South unscathed, Neilson will have a full complement of players to choose from with the exception of John Souttar.

That means winger Josh Ginnelly is primed for a return.

The winger has been out of action since hobbling off early in the 1-0 win over Arbroath back on October 23.

He was expected back sooner but his thigh injury didn’t recover as quickly as Neilson had hoped. However, Ginnelly has trained all week putting him in contention for the visit of the Doonhamers.

“Josh was a difficult one,” Neilson said. “He came back trained and had a wee recurrence of it again and we took him back out.

"It was great to get him back in. He brings a different element to the team, one v one, eliminating people. Hopefully he gets a bit of game time on Saturday.

"We spoke in the summer about trying to get wide players that are going to go past people but went and lost Frear, Ginnelly and Roberts as well so that took that out the window so we had to change it a wee bit.

"We've obviously got Walker and Naismith, full-backs that can bomb on to give you that width so we coped pretty well.”

Queen of the South significance

Neilson has a plan in his head for the Celtic clash but it is a case of concentrating on the bread and butter which means dispatching of lowly Queen of the South at Tynecastle.

For players like Ginnelly who have been out, the match takes on greater significance.

“We have an idea of what we want to do in the cup final but this week has been about the game on Saturday against Queen of the South because it will be two completely different games," explained Neilson.

"I'd expect us to have the majority of the ball on Saturday, dominate a lot of possession and then expect to go to Hampden the following week and have the shoe on the other foot.

"We have to focus on this week and then pick a team after this week.

“If they are going to be involved the following week they need to get some game time this weekend.

"We've got everyone back. It’s a funny one that, a final on the horizon and they are all back.

“The only one that is missing is John Souttar, everyone else has trained all week. Everyone else is available for Saturday.”

Neilson added: “When you play for Hearts you have to win every single game. I don't see there being any issues at all about focus for Saturday.

"We had a wee period where we lost a couple of games and it was the end of the world for everyone externally. Internally we just get on with it, make sure we are ready for the next game and we managed to get a result at Morton.”