Hearts reveal when Craig Gordon will return to the team

Craig Gordon’s brief summer break is drawing to a close as Hearts near the start of their competitive season.

Craig Gordon is ready to return for Hearts.

The goalkeeper is preparing to take part in closed-door games this weekend against Falkirk and Ayr United, and is expected to play in the opening Premier Sports Cup tie at Peterhead next Saturday.

He was part of the Scotland squad for Euro 2020 and only signed off from international duty after the final Group D match against Croatia on June 22.

“Craig comes back in for the games at the weekend. He has had a wee bit of time off with the family as he’s obviously been away with the national team and had four or five weeks in camp,” said Robbie Neilson the Hearts manager.

“He’ll get another few days and then he will come down and meet us for a few days and get another few before the Peterhead game.

“He was down at the Civil Service Strollers game [on Tuesday] and I don’t think the big man can keep himself away. It was just to give him a bit of a break but we will get him back for the games at the weekend.”

Neilson was encouraged with the 4-0 win at Civil Service before a different Hearts side beat Spartans 7-0 the same evening.

“I was pleased with both games, we got a number of the young ones playing as well, even if it’s only ten or 15 minutes, it’s good to get them about the first team. I thought it went well and it was two good results,” he said.

“It’s about fitness. Pre-season is quite condensed, we missed the Berwick game with it being cancelled by the JRG, we only had the game on Saturday and we planned to get more game time into the team.

“If you play on a Monday then you maybe can’t play again until the Thursday so to get the two games in the one day allowed everyone to get a good 60, 70 minutes.

“We’ll step it up against Ayr and Falkirk later this week and guys will probably get 90 minutes each in that. Hopefully that will get us ready for Peterhead.”

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