Progress for Beni Baningime and Liam Boyce ahead of a potential Hearts return

Injured pair stepping up their daily workloads.
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Hearts will continue monitoring midfielder Beni Baningime and striker Liam Boyce on a daily basis as both players step up the final stages of their injury rehabilitations. A return before the season ends is possible for the pair, but much depends how they cope with increased training workloads.

Baningime and Boyce are back training with the first-team squad and making progress after both ruptured cruciate knee ligaments last year. They will not be rushed back into action despite Hearts looking to overhaul a five-point deficit between themselves and Aberdeen to finish third in the Premiership.

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If their two influential figures can make a competitive return from injury before the season ends, it would be regarded as a major bonus. However, coaching staff at Riccarton are simply focused on making sure the pair come back fit, healthy and 100 per cent recovered from their respective knee damage. It is likely to be well into next month before they might even be considered for a matchday squad.

Steven Naismith, Hearts’ interim manager, explained the players’ current situation in an exclusive interview with the Evening News. “Beni and Boycie are in the same category,” he said. “They are in training but, because they have been out for so long, when you increase the amount of work they do then they start getting tighter. These next two or three weeks will be what it will be.

“I can't tell you Beni will be back in the squad in a week. He might push on and keep going and going, or he might feel fatigued at times and we will pull him out. The main thing is he is in training. Him and Boycie are getting loads of touches of the ball. They had plenty of the ball with the physios but now there is much more going on round about them. That will build the sharpness in their mind back up to the level it needs to be for them to play.

“We are monitoring them every day. They can do everything but we need to monitor so that we don't end up throwing them back in, then they pick up a niggle unrelated to their injury which then drags on for a week or two. I've had loads of experience of that during my career so I'm very much of a mind to take it day by day.

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“Over the last couple of days they have been good. They aren't just coming in for the warm-up and a bit of passing, they are actually functioning in training where your mind needs to work. Especially for Beni in the middle of the park. He needs to adjust to see if someone is putting pressure on him or if he's got time to take a touch.

Liam Boyce and Beni Baningime running together at Hearts' Riccarton training base.Liam Boyce and Beni Baningime running together at Hearts' Riccarton training base.
Liam Boyce and Beni Baningime running together at Hearts' Riccarton training base.

“We have definitely upped it a level but none of them will be ready to be playing in the next two weeks, anyway.”

Hearts have no game this weekend but resume Premiership duty against Celtic at Tynecastle a week on Sunday when the post-split games begin.