Hearts closing in on Tomas Bent Magnusson signing before Premiership opener

Derek McInnes revealed Hearts are close to signing Tomas Bent Magnusson and could have the Icelandic midfielder in their squad for Monday’s William Hill Premiership opener at home to Aberdeen.

The Edinburgh club have struck a deal with Valur to buy the 22-year-old, and manager McInnes is optimistic the transfer will be finalised in the coming days.

“Obviously Magnusson is a player that we’re trying to bring to the club,” he said at his team’s pre-match media briefing on Thursday.

“We’re quite well down the line with the process of that but we’re not there yet.

“And if we do tick all the boxes between now and Monday then we have a chance maybe to get him for Monday night.”

McInnes expressed sympathy for impending new recruit Pierre Landry Kabore, who is still awaiting a work permit to complete his transfer to Hearts.

The Jambos hoped to have the required paperwork signed off last week to secure the 24-year-old Burkina Faso attacker from Estonian club Narva Trans.

However, Kabore, who has been in Scotland for several weeks, faces an anxious wait to learn if he will be able to make his debut against the Dons on Monday.

“Just to stress the club has done everything that we can,” said McInnes. “We have done now for a while and we’re just waiting for the process (to be completed).

“It was indicated to us it would be last week but that hasn’t been the case, so it’s a source of frustration for us. I feel for the boy, he’s been over in the country now a while and itching to get going.

“It’s frustrating for him and we’re obviously trying to keep him positive because he’s kicking his heels at the minute. We’ve got to respect the situation that we’re in but equally it has been tough on him and us.

“We’d like to have got him playing a (bounce) game yesterday. We’re still hopeful he can be part of the squad (on Monday) but at this moment we have to say he’s not because we don’t have the necessary paperwork.”

McInnes revealed that Norwegian right-back Christian Borchgrevink is set to be fit for Monday’s match while he is “hopeful” Calem Nieuwenhof will shrug off a hamstring injury in time, but Beni Baningime is set to miss out.