Hearts manager Craig Levein reveals his plans for Peter Haring this weekend

Hearts' Peter Haring is back in training

The influential Austrian hasn’t featured since the winter break after undergoing a double hernia operation in January. However, he has been back in full training this week and Craig Levein is of a mind to hand the 25-year-old a return to the side on Saturday as long as he comes through today and tomorrow unscathed.

“I’m hopeful that Peter has a full week of training with no problems and then if he does that, he’ll be in contention for the weekend,” Levein told the Evening News. “He’s pretty robust and low maintenance and he’s done a lot of work already before returning to full training so if he trains well, I wouldn’t be concerned about putting him straight back in on Saturday. It’s sometimes the younger ones I feel the need to reintroduce gently, but I’m not so concerned about someone like Peter who’s a very experienced pro. I don’t think it will take him long to get his eye back in. I could throw him in if he’s fit.”

After Sunday’s 2-1 defeat at Motherwell, Levein is hoping his side can get back on track by defeating a bottom-of-the-table St Mirren side who beat them 2-0 in their last meeting in Paisley in November. “We’ve got recent experience of them beating us when we went through there so obviously we’ve got some making up to do on that front,” said the manager. “They’ve done some business in the January transfer window which has given them more options so we know we’re in for a tough game. I’m hoping we get back to our best. There were a lot of encouraging signs on Sunday. We played some good stuff and created good opportunities so I’m hoping we can build on that, and Peter coming back in will obviously help us.”