Hearts young defender John Souttar will miss the rest of this season after it was confirmed the Scotland Under 21 has ruptured his Achilles during the Jambos 4-0 defeat at Celtic on Sunday.
Souttar told the official Hearts website:
“There’s positives and negatives to take from the situation.
“On the bright side, I’m not spending a year on the sidelines. However, I’m still gutted that I won’t get to finish the rest of the campaign.
“It’s been a good season for me up until this point as I had been playing every week, but I’ll just use that as motivation to get back to fitness and win my place back in the team.
“I’ve got the likes of Callum Paterson and Sam Nicholson who will be able to offer me advice on long-term injuries and I know I’ll have the support of everyone at the club.
“Now we just get the operation out of the way and aim for returning in pre-season a stronger and better player.”
Coming on top of fellow defender Callum Paterson’s long-term injury – the Scotland cap will be out until September – Souttar’s absence is another blow to Hearts. However, Head Coach Ian Cathro was delighted with his team’s demolition job on Rangers following the impressive 4-1 victory at Tynecastle on Wednesday evening.
Speaking to the official Hearts website, Cathro said:
“I’m pleased that a lot of people have been able to let out some of the frustrations they’ve had with the difficult moments we’ve experienced so far,” he said. “I think that was a factor in a lot of the game.
“Sometimes it hurts and we all hurt but we stay strong collectively. I enjoyed seeing the players enjoying themselves. It’s out now and we move on.
“I never had any doubt about where we would go and the stage we would reach,” he continued. “The only thing that was difficult and frustrated me was the 17,000 fans inside the stadium not seeing that yet.
“They were asked to believe and take my word for it and sometimes that’s difficult. The longer that goes on, the more difficult it is. What pleases me is that everyone else has had a glimpse into that and hopefully they’re excited.
When asked what aspects of the performance he had found most satisfying, Ian admitted the tempo the team maintained throughout the 90 minutes gave him the most pleasure.
“What pleased me most was the fact that the performance lasted for the entire 90 minutes. I think that’s important.
“Every time the ball went dead our players were together and we were strong and fighting. We wanted to say on top. Only good teams want to stay on top.
“I want to attack. I don’t mean disrespect to any opponents, but as long as the game’s going on, I want us to attack. I want us to score goals. I’ll never change in that approach.”
Meanwhile, the redevelopment of Hearts main stand continues apace with the truss now in position above the old stand. It’s the latest piece in the rebuilding of a great stadium.
Author of The Team for Me - 50 Years of Following Hearts. Runs Mind Generating Success, a successful therapy practice in Edinburgh. Contact me if you want rid of any unwanted habits. Twitter @Mike1874
