HEARTS SAY NO TO BOBIC

Hearts will not be following up their interest in Germany international Fredi Bobic.

The 34-year-old was on trial with the Bank of Scotland Premier League leaders this week.

The former Bolton, Stuttgart and Borussia Dortmund forward arrived in Edinburgh on Monday and was available as a free agent after leaving Hertha Berlin in the summer.

But the Tynecastle club have decided against pursuing their interest.

A Hearts spokesperson said: "Fredi has been training with the club for a couple of days, however, he will not be joining Hearts."

But Hearts boss George Burley has received good news on forward Roman Bednar.

The 22-year-old is making excellent progress after knee surgery after being injured in the 1-0 win over Rangers last month.

The Tynecastle manager is delighted with Bednar's progress, but concedes his return to fitness may not come in time for the Edinburgh derby at Hibernian on October 29.

Burley said: "It is just over two weeks now since surgery, but we are very happy with his progression. We will see how he keeps going.

"It is too early (on possible appearance against Hibs). We said that it might be six weeks, but it is going better than we expected and so we must play it week by week."

Burley lost most of his squad to international duty last week ahead of the 1-1 draw at Celtic, which kept the Edinburgh side three points clear of the Hoops at the top of the SPL.

But the Jambos' boss is glad to be back working with his players again as he prepared for the visit of Dunfermline on Saturday.

Burley said: "The boys are working hard, they are enjoying their football and the spirit is good. But we've had good sessions all season.

"We went through the video (of the Celtic game). We also discussed the week ahead as far as preparing for Saturday is concerned.

"We did some core stability work on their fitness which is an ongoing thing.

"You really want to do things right. Ideally, you want a week to build up to the game, but the good news is that the players are getting good habits and that is very important.

"Once you have good habits then you are able to do well and it showed last Saturday."

Taken from sportinglife.com