THE Argentina shirt that Cammy Devlin received from Lionel Messi at the World Cup in Qatar earlier this month has since been safely deposited in a bank vault by his family back home in Australia.
“It is nice and secure,” said Devlin, who was given the top by Messi after the last 16 defeat that his country suffered at the hands of the eventual champions in the Middle East despite not playing in the match. “My brother is looking after it.”
The Hearts midfielder is also confident in the reserves that the Tynecastle club have following their incident-packed cinch Premiership match against Dundee United at Tannadice on Christmas Eve.
Craig Halkett, Stephen Kingsley and Craig Gordon all suffered injuries in the 2-2 draw that Robbie Neilson’s team recorded against Liam Fox’s side.
Neilson is optimistic that Halkett and Kinglsey will not be sidelined for too long – but Gordon had to receive oxygen on the field before being stretchered off with his leg in a brace following a collision with Steven Fletcher.
Devlin is keeping his fingers crossed that every member of the trio will be back playing for Hearts, who take on St Johnstone in the league at McDiarmid Park on Wednesday evening, in the near future.
However, if any of them is ruled out in the long-term he has complete faith in the individuals who will come in to take their place.
“My thoughts are with Craigy and the other boys,” he said. “I just hope they are okay.
“It is not easy when you see one of your team mates get carried off. You never want to see anyone get injured, even opposition players, and it was definitely hard. It is hard to play when your mates are hurting whether it is serious or not serious. I hope they are okay.
“But you have to get on with things. We are professional and that is what we have got to do. There were 30 odd minutes left on Saturday when Craigy went off and as much as it was hard to turn your focus away from your captain and your other team mates as well we had to do that.”
Devlin added: “Firstly, I hope they’re not ruled out, I hope they’re okay. I know the boys who came on in their position will definitely hope their okay as well because you never want that for any player.
“But every single player we have got, whether they are injured, on the bench or in the stands, I have full confidence in. They are at Hearts for a reason. I know they are good enough.
“They wouldn’t be here if they weren’t. The boys who came in on Saturday did exceptionally well. The changes that the gaffer made a difference.”
Devlin did not get any game time for Australia in Qatar and stressed he is feeling good about the hectic schedule of fixtures which Hearts have coming up in the weeks ahead.
“I am happy to be back,” he said. “I had a bit of a break at the World Cup! I was obviously devastated not to play over there, but my body feels really good. That is the same for all the boys. We are raring to go over this period. I love to get out and play as many games as I can.”
United keeper Mark Birighitti was devastated when Lawrence Shankland scored an equaliser in the fifth minute of injury-time to earn Hearts a point.
But he believes the bottom-placed top flight side can be encouraged by their display heading into their meeting with fellow strugglers Ross County at home on Wednesday night.
“I have the confidence in this playing group that we’ll get off the bottom of the table,” he said. “Hopefully, we can start getting some positive stuff results and climb up the ladder. We have the quality to do so. If we perform like we did on Saturday then I am sure the results will come.”
“County is a big game, a must-win game. We will take a lot of confidence and positives from the Hearts game. There a lot of things we can work on and get off the bottom. Our fans were brilliant and they really got behind us. It was disappointing we didn’t get the three points but there were still plenty of positives.”
