McAllister injury woe

PAUL KIDDIE IN VANCOUVER

HEARTS’ pre-season plans have been rocked after new signing Jamie McAllister suffered a suspected broken hand.

The full-back was injured in the closing moments of this morning’s opening tour game against Canada B at Swangard Stadium in Vancouver, the Scotland cap having started his first match in maroon as the Jambos kicked off their International Pacific Soccer Series challenge with a 1-1 draw.

But his big day turned sour towards the end of the clash when he fell awkwardly under a challenge from Jamie Peters in front of the main stand.

He was immediately substituted and received medical attention on the bench, his left hand requiring to be heavily strapped. He emerged from the visitors’ dressing-room after the match with two fingers in a splint, boss Craig Levein revealing he had hurt the same hand during training at the weekend.

The Gorgie chief is hopeful the injury is not as bad as first feared, although the player is likely to have precautionary X-rays at a local hospital to determine the full extent of the problem.

"Jamie hurt his hand late in the game but we don’t know how bad it is," he said.

"It is sore and he landed on it in a similar fashion during training.

"We will have to wait and see how he is."

Dennis Wyness opened the scoring for Hearts in the second half with a well-taken goal, the home side hitting back with almost the last kick of the ball through Josh Simpson, the equaliser having a distinct look of offside about it.

Despite the late setback Levein declared himself satisfied with the work out in a match played under a blazing hot sun, particularly in the first half.

As well as the heat, the players also had to shrug off the effects of jet lag to cope with their lively opponents and had done enough to merit a victory before the Canadians’ injury time leveller.

"It was a useful exercise for us with the intention to build up everyone’s fitness," he said.

"I tried to give as many people as possible the 90 minutes so tried to limit the substitutions." There were some hefty tackles from both sides in a keenly contested affair and Levein added: "It was a bit competitive but that was one of the reasons we came here. The Canadians are always good athletes and I wanted us to work hard. This was the first of three matches over here and as I said I thought it was a good exercise.

"The players thought the equaliser was offside so were a little bit upset about that at the end. But I can’t complain as they all did well and I was pleased with their efforts."

Taken from the Scotsman