Kilmarnock, Celtic, St Mirren and Dundee are on the horizon for Derek McInnes

Several Hearts players will make staggered returns from injury over the coming weeks as the club prepare for key Premiership matches. They travel to Kilmarnock when league business resumes after the international break, followed by a visit from Celtic, a trip to St Mirren and a home match against Dundee at the start of November.

The Tynecastle head coach Derek McInnes is eager to maintain momentum after an unbeaten start in the top flight. Hearts sit top of the table, two points ahead of champions Celtic, and are preparing to welcome back a number of first-team members. Brazilian midfielder Eduardo Ageu and English centre-back Frankie Kent are close to returning but will be reintroduced gently. Norwegian right-back Christian Borchgrevink and Australian midfielder Calem Nieuwenhof are at different stages of recovery after illness and injury respectively.

Ageu, Hearts’ record signing, is back running following a hamstring complaint and should be ready to resume full training next week before the Kilmarnock match. Kent is targeting a return from knee cartilage surgery against Celtic the following week. Borchgrevink is expected to be available for Kilmarnock, while Nieuwenhof is still feeling discomfort in his hamstring.

The Hearts head coach Derek McInnes explained the situation to the Edinburgh News. “Ageu is outside working, just building up,” he said. “He is running and it's a slow process with that because there are stages he needs to keep hitting. There's no plan for any further scans. He is out on the grass running with the medical team, so it's just a case of building up that load. All being well, hopefully we can then get him integrated with the team at some point next week for training.

“Frankie is similar. He is targeting Celtic and he's keen to be ready for that one. He is doing well, progressing and he's a determined big boy. He told me that any injuries he had in the past, he's always been ahead of schedule. You can never have enough good players and Frankie was doing really well for us.

“Borchgrevink will get his minutes built up over the next week or so in training and he will be available for Kilmarnock. Nieuwenhof has trained. He trained last Friday, wasn't in the squad for Saturday. He's just got a wee ongoing thing with his hamstring. He just keeps feeling it a wee bit so we don't know if that needs any further investigation. At the minute, we probably won't look to do anything on that and hope it settles down a bit.”

McInnes had spoken of arranging a closed-door friendly match next week for Hearts players who are not on international duty. He is now making alternative plans and is likely to organise an full-scale training match instead. Goalkeeper Craig Gordon, midfielder Cammy Devlin, plus forwards James Wilson and Pierre Landry Kabore are all off representing their countries at the moment.

“We aren't going to bother with the friendly now. We will probably just play an 11 v 11 between ourselves and keep the bigger pitch for training to mimic a game,” said McInnes. “It's just an extension of training. We have a few players away. Kabore, Cammy and James won't be back till late next week and Craig is with Scotland.”