Derek McInnes was recently purring about his “Rolls Royce”, Eduardo Ageu Almeida Santos, but the Brazilian midfielder will be missing for Hearts’ trip to Ibrox on Saturday.
The 23-year-old made his debut after 65 minutes as the Jambos edged Livingston in the William Hill Premiership at The Home of the Set Fare Arena before the international break, but Ageu has a damaged hamstring.
McInnes had hoped to do some work with the newcomer in the international break, but believes that the injury will sideline the box-to-box player for at least two weeks and he does not know when the player suffered the injury.
He added: “The hamstring needs to be attended to and he will not be part of anything for the next couple of games. The only benefit for him and Frankie (Kent, who injured his knee in training this week), is that the games are spread out over the next two weeks.
“Disappointing for both lads. Ageu brings something a bit different but we will still have time to do that this season but, unfortunately, it will not be immediately.”
Kent (pictured in training before the injury) will also be out for Saturday. McInnes confirmed scans were doing done and he hopes the injury is not too significant.
Young goalkeeper, Liam McFarlane, who was on the club’s substitutes bench at Livingston, was undergoing concussion tests after being injured on Scotland under-21 duty, and he is not able to train. James Wilson is also in that squad.
Zander Clarke returns from Scotland duty on Wednesday and Pierre Landry Kabore and Kenneth Vargas will not be back until Friday after being away with their countries.
Hearts had a bounce game last week to get minutes into players including Jamie McCart who has enjoyed a full week of work on the training pitch and is getting closer to a return to action, and Craig Gordon has picked up his work in the last ten days.
Overall, McInnes said some of the performances so far have been “more than decent”, with two “strong” away victories and ten points from 12, he said, is good and he added: “If we can replicate that then we will be doing alright.
“The time for really looking at things for any team is after the first couple of rounds of fixtures. It is a strong start and, hopefully, we can maintain that.”
