Premiership meeting at Tynecastle is live on Sky Sports

Hearts striker Lawrence Shankland is out for six to eight weeks with a hamstring strain to add to injury problems at Tynecastle Park. Already without Cammy Devlin, Oisin McEntee, Stephen Kingsley and record signing Eduardo Ageu through injuries, plus Beni Baningime’s two-game suspension, the Edinburgh club are now further depleted as they prepare to face Celtic on Sunday.

Shankland had his injury assessed by medical staff after limping off against Falkirk in Saturday’s Scottish Cup tie. He hobbled around at full-time and further investigation has confirmed a strain which will likely sideline him until March. The Hearts captain will now miss a vital part of the season, including games against Celtic, Hibs, Rangers and Aberdeen.

The news compounds a difficult few days for the Premiership leaders. They lost on penalties against Falkirk to exit the Scottish Cup at the first hurdle, which followed news that Devlin’s ankle injury would also mean an absence of six to eight weeks for the influential Australian internationalist. He sustained that problem against St Mirren last Wednesday, the game in which Baningime received a red card and incurred a two-game ban serious foul play.

Head coach Derek McInnes will utilise his sizeable first-team squad over the next few weeks to cope with the increasing number of injuries. “Definitely. That’s been another message that the manager said,” explained defender Craig Halkett after the Falkirk match. “We’ve got a big squad and everyone knew that we have a big squad from the start of the season. So everyone’s always going to get their chance to play their part. It’s just so important that the boys do that now.

“It’s going to be massive I think. We’ve been quite fortunate as a group to not really have picked up many injuries throughout the season. I think you all know over the course of the season, 38 games, you’re always going to pick up some. It’s unfortunate that Cammy picked up his injury last week. Like I said, there are going to be more along the way. So it’s all about the whole squad chipping in. We’ve got a big squad and everyone’s raring to play. For the boys that come in, I think they’ve shown in the last few games that they can step up and be counted. That’s going to be massive going forward.

“Obviously, there’s still a long way to go in the league. So it’s just going to be about getting our heads down and just taking each game as it comes. That has been the message right from the start about just going into whatever game we face and trying to win it or pick up three points whatever competition it’s in. Going forward, that’s going to still be the message.”