As Hearts players gradually return to fitness, picking a starting 11 becomes evermore difficult. The first-team squad at Riccarton totals 30 players, most of whom are jostling to be involved in Tuesday’s Edinburgh derby against Hibs.
There are decisions to be made in midfield regarding who starts out of Marc Leonard, Beni Baningime, Oisin McEntee and Tomas Magnusson. Then, should Hearts play with two wide players or one? Does Islam Chesnokov have a part to play?
Defensively, the hosts will aim to be solid and use the pace and creativity of attackers like Claudio Braga to unlock the Hibs defence. Our predicted Hearts XI for the derby is below:
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