Hearts give injury updates and latest team news ahead of St Mirren

Steven Naismith has been speaking about Hearts injury situation and the club’s team news ahead of St Mirren

Following three winless domestic fixtures, Hearts are now back on track with their 2023/24 season following a 2-0 win over Aberdeen. Yutaro Oda and Liam Boyce both found the back of the net to secure a vital three points for Steven Naismith’s side and they will now head to St Mirren in the hope of continuing their winning form.

Oda scored the opener after just 14 minutes but his game came to an end shortly after putting the Jambos ahead at Tynecastle. The Japanese 22-year-old was taken off the pitch and was seen later on crutches, but the Hearts’ boss has assured fans this was merely a precautionary measure.

With a string of challenging fixtures coming up, Naismith was taking no chances with his star players and has confirmed Oda, Andy Halliday, Kyosuke Tagawa and Alex Lowry are all on course for a return to the pitch very soon.

Speaking to the press, Naismith said: “(with Oda) it was more precautionary. He felt something very slight but I didn’t want to risk it. We’ve got some tough games and he’d done really well at the start of the game but I felt we had the players there ready and I didn’t want to take the risk so that’s why he came off but it shouldn’t be too bad.

“Andy Halliday and Kyosuke Tagawa both picked up knocks yesterday but I’m hoping they should be minor. They’ll be further assessed this week.”

The second substitution that was made came just after half-time with Peter Haring coming off for Calem Nieuwenhof. The Austrian was on a yellow, a card he picked up within ten minutes, and looked on course to receive a second before Naismith tactically removed him from the pitch.

Speaking about the substitution, the Naismith verified : “The reason we took Pete off was because he was on a yellow and the way he plays on the pitch, if he makes a wrong tackle then we’re down to ten men.”

The Jambos boss was also asked about the lack of minutes midfielder Alex Lowry was given against the Dons on Saturday but this has been confirmed to be a tactical ploy rather than any potential injury concern.

Naismith added: “He’s fine. Everybody in the squad needs to perform every day. I’ve consistently said each game is different. I think today, we needed a lot of pace going forward hence why we picked the players that we did. But as a group we need to continue to train every day with a competitive edge, try to get in the team but everyone knows they’re in the squad because we believe that they can contribute and will be needed throughout the season.”