Cammy Devlin has been ruled out of Hearts' trip to face Kilmarnock after the Australian suffered a nasty injury while on international duty.
The important midfielder was involved for the Socceroos as they lost to Ecuador on his first international start but suffered a head knock when an opposition player crashed in to him with a knee. Devlin had 'blood pouring from his head' after the injury which has now been revealed by Robbie Neilson as a concussion, ruling him out for the weekend.
The Hearts boss watched on at Hampden Park on Tuesday as Scotland saw off Spain in triumphant fashion, with striker Lawrence Shankland missing a golden chance at the death which would have marked his international return with a bang. The second-top goalscorer in the Scottish Premiership is available for selection for Rugby Park.
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But Neilson is urging that the fight commences for third place as of the weekend, and that they must be wary of a key element of Derek McInnes' Killie side.
He said: “Cammy will miss the game at the weekend. He was dealing with concussion after the game, and it flagged up with their doctor. He was delayed getting his flight home and won’t get in until later tomorrow. The rest should all be fine.
“Lawrence and Zander came back today, and the Australian boys are back tomorrow. We’re all back together so focus now turns to going down to Killie and winning the game.”
He added: “We were disappointed at Aberdeen but the only way to put that right is to win the next game. That’s all you can do in football. The players have trained really well.
“Attention is on trying to get that third place tied down. We’ve got nine games to go and everyone around us is going to be fighting for that third place.
"The way that the league is, every game is competitive. You’ve got teams going for survival, others pushing for top six, ones looking to stay in the top six and others fighting for Europe.
“Every game at this moment, especially as we get into single digit number of games remaining, everyone will be fighting. I’m expecting a tough, physical game. Look at the stats and over 50% of their goals come from set-plays. You have to be organised in these situations.”
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