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<-Srce <-Type Scotsman ------ Report Type-> Srce->
John Robertson <-auth Paul Kiddie auth-> Craig Thomson
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4 of 020 ----- L SPL H

Selection problems worst seen by Robbo

PAUL KIDDIE

HEARTS boss John Robertson today labelled the selection crisis for today’s league clash with Inverness Caley Thistle as the worst he has known in football.

The Jambos chief was forced to go into the Tynecastle clash minus 11 first-team stars after a flu virus ripped through the first-team squad.

Steven Pressley, Paul Hartley, Stephen Simmons, Robbie Neilson, Kevin McKenna, Marius Kizys, Mark Burchill, Phil Stamp, Jamie McAllister, Michael Stewart and Neil MacFarlane were all ruled out after falling victim to the bug, which has also affected Robertson and his No.2 Donald Park.

The club asked the SPL on Thursday to postpone the game on medical grounds but while the top-flight bosses expressed their "sympathy" with the club’s plight, they ordered the game to go ahead as scheduled.

"I have never come across anything as bad as this before," Robertson said.

"To be honest there is nothing that I can recall which comes close in all my years as a player or now as manager.

"We tried to do all we could to minimise the effect of the virus by shutting down the club last Saturday. We thought things had improved on Wednesday but then lost more players after that and it got to the stage where we just didn’t know who was going to turn up for training." With his plans for the game in turmoil, Robertson was forced to promote the likes of the untested Jason Thomson, Marco Pelosi, Ryan Gay, Gary Tierney, Ryan Kennedy, and John Neill to the first team squad from Under-19 set-up.

That forced the postponement of yesterday’s wee derby with Hibs at the Dalgety Bay Leisure Centre, Hearts with insufficient players to cope with both matches.



Taken from the Scotsman


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