Burley misses ten key men in frustrating Celtic build-up

PAUL KIDDIE

HEARTS boss George Burley has admitted to having mixed emotions at seeing so many of his players away on international duty.

With no fewer than ten recognised first team stars having linked up with their respective countries, the Jambos' Riccarton academy has taken on a deserted look this week.

With just Sammy Camazzola, Jamie McAllister, Stephen Simmons, Robbie Neilson, Neil MacFarlane and Michal Pospisil available for training - Roman Bednar and Julien Brellier were both on the treatment table - little constructive work has been done by Burley and his coaching staff.

With the internationalists not returning to the club until Thursday morning at the earliest, the situation is far from ideal as Hearts prepare for their top-of-the-table showdown with Celtic on Saturday.

As a defender who won 11 caps for Scotland, the last of which came in a 1-0 defeat from England at Hampden Park in May 1982, Burley appreciates the pride players derive from answering their country's call to arms.

As a manager, however, he finds the situation nothing short of frustrating as he attempts to make the most of his time with his players on the training ground.

"It's not the first time this has happened recently but yesterday we were only able to have a little practice game with the kids," he said.

"We basically had a handful of first team players at the club like Jamie McAllister, Sammy Camazzola, Stephen Simmons, Robbie Neilson, Neil MacFarlane and Michal Pospisil.

"I would rather have them all here training so I can monitor their fitness and work together as a team on things. But I wouldn't deprive anyone of the chance to play for their country. Good luck to them as individuals but as a manager and as a club we would be much happier to have them here to work with."

With Craig Gordon, Steven Pressley, Andy Webster, Christophe Berra, Paul Hartley, Takis Fyssas, Saulius Mikoliunas, David Cesnauskis, Edgar Jankauskas, Rudi Skacel and Ibrahim Tall all on World Cup qualifying duty in various parts of the world, Burley will be keeping his fingers crossed they all return with a clean bill of health.

Striker Roman Bednar has started his rehabilitation programme following surgery on his cartilage injury suffered against Rangers last month.

French midfielder Julien Brellier is making good progress after his worrying injury sustained at Falkirk last weekend. It had been feared he had suffered a broken rib as well as some internal damage but scans have shown bruised kidneys to be the source of his discomfort and he should be fit to resume training early next week.

"Julien is still having some tests done but he's going home for the weekend and will hopefully start training with us on Tuesday," said Burley, who admitted the blank date on the domestic calendar this weekend has been a godsend for Czech front man Pospisil.

The striker has been hampered by hamstring problems since joining Hearts in the summer and made his first SPL start against the Bairns, although he had to be sacrificed after the first-half sending-off of goalkeeper Gordon.

"Michal has been doing a lot of extra work with the fitness coach and is currently basically doing a mini pre-season," said Burley.

"He's getting sharper and fitter so it's been a good for thing for him to be able to do more training before our next game against Celtic."

Taken from the Scotsman