Relegation fear is driving Hearts squad to save their season, says Ben Garuccio

Ben Garuccio is back from a long absence with a knee injury

Relegation fear is fuelling Hearts’ new-year recovery effort as players strive to avoid going down with one of Scotland’s biggest clubs. Ben Garuccio, the recently-returned Australian defender, admits no-one wants such an ignominy on their CV.

Daniel Stendel has spoken often about adding power to his team and right now they seem driven to survive to such an extent it could probably take them right up the A9 to Dingwall tomorrow.

Hearts have five points to make up if they are to haul themselves off the foot of Premiership, starting away at Ross County. Some foundations were laid on Saturday with a convincing 5-0 win against Airdrie in the Scottish Cup. The league is of far greater priority, though, as players seek to avoid a catastrophic relegation.

“You don’t want to have that next to your name at the end of your career,” said Garuccio. “People look at that, whether you’ve been involved in successful teams or unsuccessful teams. We have a good group of players, good characters and good footballers. It’s up to us to pull us out of this situation.

“No-one else is going to feel sorry for us. People will probably try to put us down on the outside but we need to focus on what we’re doing on the inside. We have to stick to our gameplan and listen to the gaffer.

“The league is the priority, 100 per cent. That’s where we need to start putting results together. The last two weeks have been building blocks, as was Saturday. The training has been really good and the mood has lifted but we haven’t had results to add to it. We won on Saturday, scored five goals and kept a clean sheet. We need to take that into the league and start playing to our potential.”

Garuccio returned to action in December from eight months out with a torn anterior cruciate ligament. He is the type of player who could thrive under Stendel given his aggression and tenacity on the field. He is also the only member of Hearts’ first-team squad who can boast an undefeated record this season.

His two substitute appearances since regaining fitness were in December’s 1-1 draw with Aberdeen and Saturday’s cup victory. He may now find himself starting tomorrow night with Aaron Hickey an injury doubt at left-back.

“Anything is better than where I’ve been for the past nine months. I’m grateful to be back involved. It’s unfortunate Hickey has picked up an injury but I’ll try to do my best for the team. I’m ready, 100 per cent. As long as I’m fit, I’m always ready and I’ll play wherever the gaffer wants to play me.”

Garuccio flew home to his native Australia to recuperate last year and recalled the mental torture he endured whilst injured.

“You don’t really understand what an injury like that does to you mentally until it actually happens. You see other boys go through it and you feel sorry for them but, at the end of the day, footballers are selfish. You forget about it. You don’t see what happens behind closed doors until it happens to you.

“I didn’t really know how big the operation was. After it, I don’t think I left my bed for two weeks. If I was here I would have struggled eating the right things and getting ice for myself. My girlfriend helped me a lot. It was a challenge mentally. You wake up one day with swelling, it hasn’t pulled up as good as you thought, or you do a session and feel pain you didn’t have before. Then there are the other muscles not used to all that work. So many things can go wrong.

“I had little setbacks and I think everyone does. I was fairly positive throughout the whole thing and tried to come back as quick as possible. It was supposed to be a ten-month injury and I was back in eight, so I’m happy with that. Now I just want to stay fit.”