Toby Sibbick says the 24 matches between now and the World Cup break are huge for Hearts.
The versatile defender is eager for Robbie Neilson's men to progress past the Europa League play-off round against FC Zurich or Linfield and into the group stages, with Europa Conference League groups a fall-back if that doesn't go to plan. On top of that they have a relentless run of league matches to come and they're in the Premier Sports Cup too.
It means a mammoth amount of matches await Hearts before Scottish football shuts for this winter's World Cup in Qatar and Sibbick says the run leading into that is important. He told Edinburgh Evening News: "Every player wants to play at the highest level and before I came here I was looking at the league position and knew the club could get to the Europa League, It was something I was looking into.
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"If you play in the Europa League then you're playing against some of the best players in the world. We've got 24 games before the World Cup break.
"Everyone is going to be needed. The team is going to be changed a lot and everyone needs to be ready. I'm just looking forward to the games coming up.
"Everyone wants to keep their place in the team. But it's a team game, sometimes there's going to be chop and change. You just need to get your head down, keep working to get your spot back and that's what I aim to do.”
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