Hearts v Dundee: Ellis Simms pushing to start and John Souttar fit; comeback dates for Michael Smith and Craig Halkett

The Everton loanee Ellis Simms is pushing to return to Hearts’ starting line-up against Dundee this evening.

He played the second 45 minutes as a substitute against Rangers on Sunday and is now a strong contender for a place in the first XI following the 5-0 defeat at Ibrox.

Manager Robbie Neilson is assessing his attacking options, which include top goalscorer Liam Boyce and versatile forwards Barrie McKay, Josh Ginnelly, Gary Mackay-Steven and Ben Woodburn.

“Potentially Simms could come back in,” he said. “We have some good options up there so the main thing is: ‘What do we start with?’ I’ve been really pleased with Ellis so far. He is a great kid who has done well when he has had the opportunity.”

John Souttar trains with the Hearts squad at Riccarton on Tuesday.

The 21-year-old has one goal from three appearances since agreeing a loan move to Tynecastle Park last month. Tonight’s match could also see the return of John Souttar to the Hearts teamsheet.

He missed the last two games with an ankle complaint. “John is back in, he trained and should be fine,” added Neilson. “The only ones who should be missing are Craig Halkett and Michael Smith.”

Halkett’s projected return date after a hamstring injury is early next month, although Smith could be back as early as this weekend after receiving an injection to alleviate a back problem.

“It will be another couple of weeks or so before Halkett is back in, I would think,” said Neilson. “His absence shouldn’t be as long as we thought it would be. It will probably be around the start of March when he gets back.

“I expect Michael back for the weekend. He got his injection on Monday so we will see how he is.”

Hearts entertain Livingston in the Scottish Cup fifth round on Saturday and Neilson stressed the magnitude of the next few days. A ten-point advantage in third place is no reason to relax entering the business end of the season.

“We want to finish as high up the league as we can, then on Saturday it’s the Scottish Cup and we want to try to win that,” said the manager. “We want to try and get to the final or as far as we can get and it’s important we do that.

“You saw the reaction after we got beat by Rangers, we’re expected to win every single game. We play Dundee and the pressure is to win it. If we can do that the pressure is to beat Livingston on Saturday. When you play with Hearts, I don’t think you are ever in a comfort zone.”

Dundee are fighting relegation as the Premiership’s bottom club, but Neilson remains wary. “It will be tough, when you look at the squad they’ve got it’s a strong squad and very experienced,” he pointed out.

“They’ve brought in [Niall] McGinn, they brought in [Zak] Rudden who has been doing very well in the Championship. In the midfield they have Charlie [Adam] in there. The games against them this season have been tight, similar to most of the games this year.”

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