Cammy Devlin has been ruled out of Hearts' clash with Kilmarnock this weekend after getting his head stitched up while on international duty with Australia.
Devlin took a blow to the head during their friendly defeat to Ecuador and initially played on with a bandage before being replaced on 54 minutes. And Robbie Neilson has confirmed he has been diagnosed with a concussion, and won't be available for their trip to Rugby Park as they look to recover from a recent dip in form and strengthen their grip on third place. Neilson said: "He will miss the game at the weekend. He has concussion. He flagged it up with their doctor. He was delaying his flight home so he won't be home until later tomorrow so he will miss the game."
Hearts travel to Ayrshire just four points ahead of Aberdeen having looked a shoe-in for the position, and accompanying guaranteed European football, just a few weeks ago. Their defeat to the Dons last week was damaging in that regard but Neilson insists any team outside of Celtic and Rangers would want to be in their position.
He said: "We were obviously disappointed (with the Aberdeen game) but we also have to have perspective within that and look at where we are in the league. We are sitting four points clear in third position. Yes, we would like to have more but I think if you asked any team outwith Rangers and Celtic, they would want to be in our position.
"We have nine games to go to try to secure that and it starts on Saturday. There's expectation on Hibs, expectation on Aberdeen as well. Everyone is fighting for that third place. "We are trying to fight to be higher than that, that's the objective.
"There is expectation but it is the same as every club.. The way the league is now, every game is competitive. "You have a group fighting for survival. You have a group fighting to get into the top six, a group fighting to stay in the top six, a group fighting for Europe.
"So every game at this moment, especially as it comes down to the last single-figure (number of) games, it is all important. "We expect it to be a hard, physical, demanding game. They are very good at set-plays. If you look at their stats, over 50 per cent of their goals come from set-plays so you know you have to be organised in those situations."
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