Surgery brings Hearts winger Gary Mackay-Steven closer to return date

Hearts winger Gary Mackay-Steven has had surgery to repair the broken hand he suffered at Dundee United earlier this month.

The Edinburgh club sent him to a specialist last week and an operation was deemed the best option. The procedure fixed the fractured bone and allows Mackay-Steven to target a quick return to action.

His recovery time is expected to be a week to ten days, meaning he might miss this weekend’s Premiership match between Hearts and Livingston at Tynecastle Park. If so, he should be fit and ready to resume training early next week and potentially return against Ross County a week on Saturday.

Riccarton coaching staff are pleased that the 31-year-old will not be a long-term absentee following a flurry of recent injuries to senior players.

Hearts winger Gary Mackay-Steven has had surgery on his hand.

“Gary had an operation and I think he should be out for a week to ten days and then be coming back into training. He will miss this weekend but he should be back for Ross County.

“It’s not too bad. We did think it might be worse but I think he can play with the splint they put on the hand.”

Hearts are also hopeful that some of their other injured players will be available for the Livingston match. They were without John Souttar (ankle), Michael Smith (back), Cammy Devlin (hamstring), Alex Cochrane (head) and Josh Ginnelly (knock) against St Mirren.

Mackay-Steven watched from the stand with some injured colleagues as a pulsating quarter-final at Tynecastle Park ended 4-2 in Hearts favour.

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