New injury blow for Heart as duo ruled out for season
Striker Keena, who has featured in four of the Tynecastle side’s last five games, had to be substituted in the second half of the Scottish Cup semi-final victory over Inverness Caledonian Thistle last Saturday and it has since emerged that he has suffered a cartilage injury.
Just 48 hours later, winger Morrison, who has started 20 first-team matches this term, suffered a similar injury after scoring a double for Hearts Reserves in their 5-0 victory over Kilmarnock at Rugby Park.
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Hide AdBoth 19-year-olds will have to undergo surgery and won’t play again this season. “They are both due to go for operations this week,” confirmed manager Craig Levein. “They will not play again this season, for sure. I feel for both of them. They are young lads who had opportunities. Callumn has taken his opportunity quite well. His performances have maybe tailed off a bit recently but he was good earlier in the season.
“Aidan was out on loan in the first part of the season and has done well in training. He looked like he was going to be round about things, on the bench, maybe getting some game time in the last five or six games, but that is now knocked on the head.”
Morrison and Keena are the latest in a long list of Hearts players to suffer serious injury this season. Steven Naismith, Demetri Mitchell and Ben Garuccio are all currently sidelined long-term, while several other key men have been absent for significant periods of the campaign. Given the extraordinary number of injuries within his squad this season, Levein explained that Hearts are assessing their training methods in order to be certain they are not doing anything that may be putting their players at increased risk of physical damage.
“They both happened in matches again,” the manager said, ruefully. “Sometimes you sail through seasons with hardly any injuries but we are just having a more difficult period just now. The important thing is that we look at everything we are doing to see if we are causing any of these with training or surfaces or the loading that we are putting on them. We are doing that just now.”
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Hide AdMidfielder Peter Haring, meanwhile, is in a race to overcome a groin problem in time for tomorrow’s match against Rangers at Tynecastle. “Looking at how sore he’s been, I’d think he’ll be doubtful,” said the manager.