Peter Haring ready to face St Mirren – and tells how Hearts fans helped him overcome injury

Peter Haring has taken part in every Hearts training session this week

The influential Austrian hasn’t played since the 1-0 win over Hibs at Easter Road eight weeks ago after taking time out to undergo a double hernia operation in the winter break.

Following a week’s full training, Haring is champing at the bit to play and has no concerns about the possibility of being pitched straight back into the starting line-up for today’s Tynecastle clash with bottom-of-the-table St Mirren.

“It’s the gaffer’s decision whether I go straight back in but I’m feeling well,” said the 25-year-old. “I trained with the team and reserves last week and have done all the training sessions this week, so if the gaffer decides to pick me I’ll be ready.”

Haring was plagued by hernia trouble in his groin for the final three months of 2018 but was able to soldier on through the pain from October until December as several high-profile team-mates succumbed to serious injury. After going under the surgeon’s knife, he is relishing the prospect of being pain-free for the remainder of the campaign.

“Everything went well and I’m happy to be back,” he said. “It’s definitely good to be back without any pain and issues. It was quite a long time that I had to deal with my groin problems and it feels even better now.

“I can’t remember when it all started. I dealt with it but it was up and down, sometimes good, sometimes worse. I was taking painkillers before games. That’s in the past, now I’m healthy and glad to be back.”

Haring pushed his body to the limit one final time before the winter break to help his team towards that memorable win over Hibs at Easter Road. The combative Austrian was the dominant midfielder on the pitch in the first half before the pain eventually became too much for him. He received a standing ovation from the travelling supporters when he trudged off gingerly in the 54th minute, having given everything for the cause.

“It was too much to continue in that game,” said Haring. “The week before, it just got worse and worse every day and I felt it during the warm-up as well. During the game it got worse and worse and I had to go off. If it wasn’t such a big game I would have sat it out. It’s one of those games you definitely don’t want to miss and you try to do everything to be on the pitch.

“I did as well as I could but I didn’t enjoy it that much, I enjoyed it more when the game was over and we won.”

Haring hasn’t enjoyed watching from the sidelines since the winter break but he has been heartened by words of support from the Hearts fans.

“I’m quite a nervous spectator; I’m more calm on the pitch,” he said. “But always when I came to the stadium to watch the game and meet fans, they would give you some nice words. It’s always frustrating when you want to be on the pitch but can’t. Of course, if the fans talk to you and say ‘come back on the pitch’, it helps you and it’s nice. But it’s six weeks since the surgery and we’ve had players who have been out longer this year.”

That last line was an attempt to put his own lay-off into context, with team-mates Uche Ikpeazu, Steven Naismith, John Souttar and Christophe Berra all having been out longer term. With Haring about to join this influential quartet in being fully fit, everyone at Hearts is hopeful that the team can get close to the level of consistency they showed when surging clear at the top of the Premiership in the opening three months of the season.

“We’ve lost Demi (Mitchell) and Smudge (Michael Smith) so not everyone is back, but, yes, of course, I think we can get back to our best,” said Haring. “We showed after the break that we are almost back to our best, we played really well down at Kilmarnock when we won there. So I believe we can get back to our best, yes.”

Haring, who is mulling over the offer of a new contract from Hearts, admits his move to Tynecastle last summer has worked out perfectly for him, injury apart.

“I didn’t really know what to expect before I moved here,” he said. “All I can say is I am really enjoying the chance to be here and play football. It’s just a fantastic place for me and all of the players. It’s a massive club with good fans - a really good place to be a footballer.”