The Jambos boss confirmed Devlin’s problem and addressed other issues
Steven Naismith has confirmed Cam Devlin could face one month out of action for Hearts – as he threatened a new role of Mr Unpopular.
The Jambos boss addressed a number of issues following his side’s narrow defeat to Rangers at Tynecastle earlier this week. Scans on Devlin’s injured ankle showed results worse than initially hoped and the medical team have suggested a four week period may be how long the Australian has to sit on the sidelines.
For Naisy it represents a disappointment to lose the player for so long but while the midfielder may be out of action, Liam Boyce could have an outside chance of featuring this weekend.
“Friday will be a big day for Boycie, we will wait and see. It’s a race against time,” Naisy admitted. “Cammy got a scan as a precaution. There’s more damage than he was feeling the day after he came back in, so he is looking at being a month.”
Key men Craig Gordon, Craig Halkett and Barrie McKay all returned to the bench on Wednesday evening and Naismith was delighted to have the options.
But asked if that could make him unpopular with some players he’ll have to leave out to make space, he had no qualms.
“That’s part of it! I’ve had to deal with that recently. You just have to be honest,” he said. “These decisions are not personal. It’s a footballing decision and I’m very clear that week-to-week it could change. Gone are the days of rolling out the same team all the time and that gets you your win. That plays a part to build momentum but the tactics involved in the games are so refined that small margins make big differences.
“We put Nat Atkinson back in from the start against Rangers. It was a big ask but he’s got good experience and the opportunity to go more offensive at half-time gave us that leeway to take him back out. It was a good 45 minutes to build him up. Alex Lowry comes back into the squad. It’s competition but this game is different. We’ve played Aberdeen twice since I’ve been in charge and had two good results playing a different shape.”
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