Hearts play waiting game

MIRSAD BESLIJA was due to have his left knee scanned today following a potentially serious injury sustained in yesterday's reserve draw with Falkirk.

Hearts were left counting the cost of fielding an experienced reserve line-up after Beslija was stretchered from the field following a crunching challenge by Falkirk's Thomas Scobbie.

Hearts' record signing saw the joint begin to swell almost instantly following the collision near the end of the first half of the 1-1 draw. He left the stadium on crutches and must now wait to learn the full extent of the damage.

"We will need to wait to see to look at it," said assistant coach Stephen Frail. "There is swelling there but we will get him back to the academy and the physio can look at it."

Edgaras Jankauskas, Jose Goncalves, Neil McCann and Michal Pospisil all joined Beslija in the team and after a disjointed-looking first-half display Frail was happier to see his side restore parity after the interval through a David Armstrong penalty.

"The second half was a lot better as we got closer to them," Frail told the club website. "I was more pleased with the attitude in the second half after we had a chat at half-time and I am disappointed that we didn't win. We got tighter with the introduction of Eggert [Jonsson] and John Armstrong and it allowed us to get tighter in the second half."

McCann appeared to limp from the field early in the second half to be replaced by John Armstrong but Frail maintained afterwards that the substitution was planned all along.

He continued: "I thought that Edgaras Jankauskas showed a great attitude. The two of them [McCann and Jankauskas] showed great attitude. It was first class."

Head coach Valdas Ivanauskas was present in Stirling to cast his eye over potentially returning first-team members, but he became embroiled in an angry exchange with referee Andrew McWilliam and his assistant Wes Boulstridge at half-time following Beslija's injury.

The Lithuanian was incensed that Scobbie had not been dismissed for what he considered an illegal tackle and remonstrated with the officials as they left the field at the interval.

It remains to be seen if McWilliam will include the incident in his match report, however at this stage any SFA sanctioning would seem unlikely.

Taken from the Scotsman