Exclusive:Hearts suffer a fresh injury scare as Wouter Vrancken admits options are thin for the Trabzonspor tie

Hearts suffered a fresh injury scare at Celtic Park which leaves midfielder Oisin McEntee doubtful for Thursday's UEFA Conference League tie against Trabzonspor. The Irishman reported pain in a calf muscle at half-time and was withdrawn to avoid any further damage. Hearts medical staff are assessing him in the hope that he will be able to board the club's charter flight to Türkiye on Wednesday.

McEntee only returned to action earlier this month following more than four weeks on the sidelines with a calf injury. His influence is important to Hearts head coach Wouter Vrancken, who is praying the issue is not significant enough to rule the player out again. After losing 7-1 to Celtic, the Edinburgh club face another hugely difficult fixture against Mo Salah and his colleagues in Trabzon this week.

Vrancken explained why he decided to take McEntee off on Sunday and admitted coaching staff must now wait to find out the extent of the problem. The Belgian is eager to have him available for the central midfield position with Eduardo Ageu, Tom Renaud and Blair Spittal already ruled out through injury.

“I hope so. Oisin had some pain in his calf so I couldn't take any risk there," Vrancken told the Edinburgh News. “We are already thin in midfield as you see. We have almost no room to rotate or give some guys rest who maybe need it. We can do that in other positions, so that's a pity. Hopefully it's not too bad for Oisin.”

If McEntee does not make it, the most likely midfield pairing in Trabzon would be Laurent Mendy and Tomas Magnusson. Norwegian defender Christian Borchgrevink, who also missed the Celtic game because of an ankle knock, is expected to be available. “He got a kick in our previous game [against Nordsjaelland] and he felt it on Sunday morning in his ankle. I don't think it's too bad so I expect him back on Thursday,” said Vrancken.

Hearts players looked demoralised at full-time on Sunday and Riccarton management are now working to lift spirits ahead of the midweek European tie. Vrancken felt every Celtic goal stemmed in some way from an error by a visiting player. However, he said he was careful not to over-criticise.

“I spoke to the players at half-time. It's not helpful as a coach to kill them because they know it was not good,” he explained. “At the other end, we started well in the game and I saw some good intentions. Then you have the two set-plays that kill your whole game. Then it gets in the mind and gets in the heads. You see them trying to do things but they were a bit naïve sometimes. I think all of the goals are clear individual mistakes.

“That makes it difficult because we knew Celtic had the best team in the league for transitions. They get a lot of shots on target. It's good that you keep the ball without the risks, but when you lose the ball too easily then you give the other team the moments. You can be structured or organised how you want, but when you give the ball away it's not possible to be ready because you are always exposed.

“You have to point out the individual errors but the guys know when they make mistakes. The thing that cannot happen is that they lose all the confidence in what they are doing. They have to keep their levels for themselves. In the previous games when we had a good run, you also need to point out that everything is not always as good as it seems in the good moments. It's the same the other way round, so we have to point out some good things from Sunday.

“It's not difficult to analyse the game. It's full of individual mistakes and when those happen then you can show other options. It's hard to handle those things. The players know how it happened so they have to get over the emotion now and be ready for Trabzonspor.”