Simmons on road to a full recovery

HEARTS BY PAUL KIDDIE

HEARTS midfielder Stephen Simmons has taken his first steps on the road to recovery from a broken foot with the removal of his plaster.

The Gorgie star saw the start of his season wrecked by a shocking tackle from Hibs’ Jay Shields in the final of the East of Scotland Shield earlier this month.

The 22-year-old was stretchered from the field after just five minutes of the wee derby and although the injury wasn’t as serious as first feared, scans showed he had broken a small bone in his left foot.

He has been ruled out of action until at least October, but there was good news this week with the discarding of the plaster which means he can now step up his rehabilitation under the watchful eye of physio Alan Rae.

"It was an unfortunate injury for the lad but at least this is a positive step for him," said boss Craig Levein. "I would imagine it will be at least another month. It will be a slow process but at least this is the start of it."

It will take Simmons a number of weeks to regain full fitness but he is desperate to force his way back into the first-team frame as quickly as possible.

Levein had thrown down the gauntlet to the player during the pre-season tour to Vancouver, insisting he was expecting big things from him this season.

The Hearts boss was brave enough to acknowledge he had blundered by handing Simmons a new four-year contract in 2001 and stressed he was looking for him to make a real impression in the new campaign.

Now into the last 12 months of his deal, the former Celtic Boys Club ace had certainly looked fit and eager to stake his claim for a regular midfield berth until the untimely injury.

And he could find it even more difficult to force his way into Levein’s plans once back in contention with Michael Stewart having been recruited on loan from Manchester United and now approaching full match fitness.

Elsewhere on the injury front and Kevin McKenna has been to see a specialist in an attempt to get to the bottom of his frustrating knee problem.

The Canadian internationalist missed his side’s opening three matches of the season - he was also ruled out of the Jambos’ trip to Fir Park today - after hurting the knee in training in the build-up to last month’s friendly with Fulham.

Although not thought to be anything too serious, it has caused sufficient concern with the club’s medical staff for him to undergo further hospital scans. McKenna, who would have been used as an emergency striker in the absence of the injured Mark de Vries - the Dutchman has also missed the start of Hearts’ campaign - trained last week with the first team squad without any noticeable difficulty.

However, the discomfort flared up the following day prompting the club to investigate further and he will now have to wait until next week to discuss the situation with his specialist.

"Kevin has been to see a surgeon and has had some scans," said Levein. "He trained for a full session last week without feeling any pain. But he then had a reaction the next day and felt his tendon sore.

"It is not something which Alan Rae has come across before and could be a bit more complicated than we first thought. Having said that, though, it doesn’t seem to be anything major. We will just have to wait and see what the results are of these scans and what next week brings."

Better news for the Hearts boss is that De Vries is approaching the point when he can resume full training again, with next weekend’s Bank of Scotland Festival Cup clash against Hibs at Tynecastle having been pencilled in for a possible return.

With a string of big matches coming up next month, though, including Rangers and the UEFA Cup first round clash with Portuguese outfit SC Braga, Levein will not risk rushing the giant target man back into action before he is 100 per cent fit.

"We won’t take any chances with Mark," he said. "We saw what happened against Fulham when we thought he was ready."

Taken from the Scotsman