Why Hearts will hold off sending youngsters on loan for a little longer

Robbie Neilson wants his youngsters to get more full-time training.

Hearts manager Robbie Neilson will delay sending out some of his youngsters on loan until later into October.

The Jambos boss still plans to let kids who are on the fringes of the first team play lower down the leagues and get valuable experience, but explained to the Evening News that due current coronavirus restrictions, he wants them to remain at Riccarton a little longer.

If a player was to join a part-time club, then they would essentially leave the bio-secure bubble at Hearts. With many clubs not testing to the same level as Hearts and training only twice a week, it would deny them the opportunity of full-time training as they would not be permitted back at the club’s training base.

Neilson and his fellow coaches met during the week to discuss their plans for youngsters and agreed on development plans for players who will ultimately not be in the starting XI once the season starts.

"The ones that are around about the first team will go out eventually, but the [loan] window doesn't shut until the end of October,” said Neilson.

"The issue we have at the moment is that if these players go out, they can't return to us and train during the day [due to coronavirus bubble restrictions], so we are going to keep hold of them for a little bit longer and then make a decision.

"There will be a number of them who do go out for development, to get game-time.”