Keeper backing for Pressley

Hearts goalkeeper Craig Gordon says the Edinburgh club do not have a natural successor to Steven Pressley in the face of reports stating the defender has been stripped of the captaincy at Tynecastle.

Pressley was left out of the Hearts team that drew 1-1 with Falkirk on Monday night - at his own insistence according to sport director Alex Koslovski - with various reports claiming the Scottish international has been removed as skipper.

The 33-year-old made an extraordinary statement in October, directed at owner Vladimir Romanov, when he revealed 'significant unrest' in the dressing room, and it now seems as though the ongoing chaos at the Edinburgh outfit has impacted severely on the defender.

His close friend Gordon, who joined him along with Paul Hartley when Pressley made the famous statement last month, has admitted the game at Falkirk was hard to focus on after news of Pressley's absence, as well as insisting that the SPL outfit have no-one capable of stepping into the defender's shoes.

"It is hard. After the team meeting, I had to go away and compose myself and put myself in the frame of mind that I was going out to do a job," said Gordon.

"We have got a couple of thousand Hearts fans coming to cheer us on. I gave everything I had.

"I spoke to him on a few occasions, and he wanted the boys to go out there and get a result. He was 100 percent behind the players.

"He is the captain and has been for a number of years.

"I don't see anybody in that dressing room capable of replacing the big character and big leader that he is."

Some reports suggest that Pressley was removed after a vote of no-confidence from a foreign clique in the dressing room at Tynecastle, but Gordon is hopeful that the Hearts squad are firmly behind the defender.

"You would have to ask everybody individually. I would hope the vast majority if not every player would back him," added Gordon.

"He always battles our corner and has the players' interests at the forefront of his mind."

Adding to the intrigue that perpetually surrounds Hearts, sport director Koslovski claims Pressley asked to be left out of the team to face Falkirk due to rumours about his position.

"I think that some rumours about his captaincy unsettled him and he asked our coach not to put him in the game because he was not 100 percent fit (mentally) to participate," stated Koslovski.

Despite claims of a dressing room rift, Lithuanian striker Edgaras Jankauskas - one of those players signed with Romanov's money - insisted before Pressley's axe that the squad were not split on national lines.

"We are united and there is no split in the team," said the striker.

"I have heard people saying players have made different groups like the Lithuanians and so on. That's not true."

Meanwhile, Hearts have released Portuguese defender Tiago Costa after the 21-year-old made just one appearance for the capital club after signing from Benfica in August.