Hearts explain Lawrence Shankland's absence at Aberdeen
SPFL Premiership match at Pittodrie sees players missing
Hearts captain Lawrence Shankland and midfielder Eduardo Ageu are missing from today’s squad to face Aberdeen at Pittodrie. The Scotland internationalist had been expected to make the trip north before a calf issue precluded him, while record signing Ageu is also absent through injury.
Shankland trained after returning from international duty with Scotland in midweek and was poised to lead Hearts out at Pittodrie. He suffered a knock in training and medical staff are exercising caution at this point with a scan due on Monday. Instead, Landry Kabore is selected to partner Claudio Braga in attack this afternoon. Midfielder Cammy Devlin donned the captain’s armband.
Shankland’s problem is not thought to be overly serious at this stage and he will be assessed again by Riccarton medical staff next week, with scan results certain to be eagerly awaited. Aberdeen are without Swedish winger Jesper Karlsson for the match after he returned home for family reasons.
The Hearts head coach Derek McInnes explained details of Shankland’s complaint. “Lawrence trained as normal on Friday. Unfortunately for us, we were training on astro because of the conditions, and it was a wee bit slippy. He just slipped and felt a wee tweak on his calf,” stated McInnes in a BBC Scotland interview.
“He still did all his press [interviews], he didn't think it was anything too much. But yesterday morning when he came in ahead of travelling, he wasn't able to train and we made the decision that he was unlikely to be fit for today. We're hoping it's nothing serious, we'll get the scan tomorrow morning and we'll know the full extent of it.
“The way he's presenting and the way he's feeling today, we're hopeful it won't be too long. He misses today, which is obviously hugely frustrating. I hate injuries at any time but I hate training ground injuries more than anything. It's the bane of our lives as managers.”
McInnes also said that Ageu’s hamstring had flared up again, an issue which has hindered the Brazilian since he arrived in Edinburgh in August. “Ageu, another boy who is just getting into the swing of things has had a wee recurrence of his hamstring. He felt his hamstring on Friday as well. So it's not been the best couple of days in terms of that,” confirmed McInnes.
Hearts are looking to extend their unbeaten Premiership start to 13 games by avoiding defeat in the north east. Victory would also restore their seven-point advantage over Celtic at the top of the league table. The Glasgow club won 1-0 at St Mirren on Saturday evening courtesy of a last-gasp Callum McGregor strike in stoppage-time. That cut the gap at the top to four points ahead of the Aberdeen-Hearts fixture.
The home side are looking for only their second home win in all competitions this season and would certainly have named Karlsson in their starting line-up. Adil Aouchiche slotted into the team in place of the Swede as manager Jimmy Thelin aimed to continue his club’s fine record against Hearts. The Tynecastle side’s last win at Pittodrie was back in 2016.