Hearts cancel summer training trip to Germany

Hearts plan to spend pre-season in Scotland after cancelling a proposed tour to Germany. Manager Craig Levein has pulled out of the trip as it wasn't being organised the way he wanted.

Players will now report to Riccarton on June 21 for three weeks of intense summer training, plus friendly matches, before the Betfred League Cup starts on July 14.

“I’ve knocked the Germany trip on the head so we’re going to stay here. It wasn’t working out the way I would’ve liked,” Levein told the Evening News. “We will probably just play matches here and do our training at the academy. I don’t have any problems staying at home. You know what you’re getting. Sometimes going abroad has its own complications as well. We only have three weeks between starting back training and playing our first competitive match. It’s not a lot of time.

“If we go abroad, you waste two days of training time by travelling. I feel okay about it and it was always at the back of my mind that we could organise some games here.”

Hearts already have one friendly scheduled against Queen of the South at Palmerston Park. That match kicks off at 7.45pm on Wednesday, July 11, with more games set to follow in due course.