Lawrence Shankland and Stuart Findlay set to hand Hearts fitness boost

Derek McInnes expects William Hill Premiership leaders Hearts to have key duo Lawrence Shankland and Stuart Findlay available for Saturday’s trip to in-form Motherwell.

Scotland striker Shankland missed Sunday’s defeat at Aberdeen after feeling a niggle in his hamstring in training on Friday.

“Lawrence’s scan came back clear,” manager McInnes said at his pre-match press conference on Wednesday. “It’s just been a bit of a reaction to the slip on the Astro, but no tear and no damage.

“He trained today, he trained about 85 per cent of the session, he just didn’t do the max-out sprints, just to make sure there was no reaction to that tomorrow. And then with that, hopefully he can be ready for the weekend.”

Defender Findlay has started every league game for Hearts this term but was forced off due to ankle discomfort in the 74th minute of Sunday’s match at Pittodrie.

“Stu actually did his ankle against Hearts in the last game of last season (while playing for Kilmarnock), so he had a wee bit of a complication through the summer with that,” McInnes explained.

“He’s never really felt anything up until the last couple of weeks and he just felt it stiffen up at the weekend. So we got that scanned and, thankfully, there’s nothing sinister going on.

“A course of tablets and an injection yesterday will hopefully allow him to train Friday and be available for the weekend.”

Hearts are currently without four players – Ageu, Beni Baningime, Finlay Pollock and Calem Nieuwenhof – due to longer-term hamstring injuries and McInnes revealed the club are assessing the situation to see if there is anything they can do to curb this trend.

“I think it would be remiss for us not to look at this in a lot more depth,” he said. “The four hamstring injuries are all in different areas. But it’s something that has been spoken about and we’ll look to try and get a bit clarity on it.

“Sometimes you can just be unlucky, but I think it’s wrong just to say we’re unlucky without looking at it a bit more in depth.”