Hearts could be missing up to eight players when pre-season training begins
There won’t be a full quota of first-team members at Riccarton next month
Hearts won’t have their full quota of players reporting to Riccarton for pre-season training having promised some an extended break. Those on international duty stretching into June, and potentially July, will be given time off before joining the club’s summer training programme.
As many as eight first-team members could be on international duty with their countries during what is the close season at club level. Craig Gordon, Zander Clark and Lawrence Shankland all hope to be involved with Scotland at the European Championship in Germany, which runs from 14 June to 14 July. Kenneth Vargas is in Costa Rica’s provisional squad ahead of the Copa America, taking place in America from 20 June to 14 July.
Three Hearts players could be named in Australia’s squad for next month’s World Cup qualifiers against Bangladesh and Palestine. Kye Rowles, Nathaniel Atkinson and Cammy Devlin are all in the frame. Also, Yutaro Oda has an outside chance of being involved in Japan Under-23s’ friendly double header with the United States of America.
Naismith has a plan in place for all Hearts’ internationalists and is happy to stagger their returns depending on how much football they play over the next few weeks. Those not representing their nations are due back at Riccarton in the week beginning 24 June.
“Some of the boys will come back slightly later,” confirmed Naismith. “The majority of boys who are on the normal international schedule will be back near the start of pre-season or just after. They will get enough rest. For the ones who are at major tournaments, that takes longer. It will depend on how far they go in the competition.
“Gone are the days of players going away and just doing nothing. It's natural now that the players understand they need to be fit. They will have their off-season programmes and log those as they go through the summer. The initial part is that they need a rest. If they are on international duty, they need to do that and have a rest and enjoy their break. They aren't going to lose that much fitness that they can't get back within the pre-season programme. Rest can't be underestimated.”