HEARTS are sweating over the fitness of inspirational skipper Steven Pressley for Saturday's Scottish Cup clash with Partick.

The Scotland defender was sent home from training on Monday suffering from a virus and spent yesterday in bed in a bid to beat off the illness.

Pressley is not expected to return to the club's Riccarton training ground until tomorrow at the earliest and director of football Jim Duffy admits it's a cause for concern ahead of the quarter-final.

He said: "Steven will be monitored by the doctor and the medical staff and we'll need to see how he is later in the week.

"At this stage we don't know whether he'll be ready or not. Hopefully the illness will settle down after 48 hours.

"But you never know how much strength something like this saps until you get back."

Meanwhile, midfielder Samuel Camazzola boosted Graham Rix's already bulging squad yesterday when he returned to action after nine weeks out with a stress fracture in his foot.

The 23-year-old Brazilian played the full 90 minutes of a reserve clash with Motherwell, which ended 0-0.

Duffy added: "We'll check on Samuel on Wednesday to make sure there's no reaction because the next 24 hours is usually the important period when you're coming back like he is."

Recent signings Martin Petras and Chris Hackett also featured in the game. Petras was last week identified by Jambos coach Graham Rix as one of 10 players he has separated from the first-team squad in a bid to improve their fitness.

Duffy insists it was the right thing to do. He said: "One of the reason for having a big squad is to have players ready to perform but to do that they need to be fit.

"The general fitness of the players that were mentioned is fine, it's more a case of them not being used to the tempo of the game in Scotland.

"The reserve game was a competitive match and that will have helped Martin adjust. Chris is another who needs to adapt to the pace up here."

Taken from the Daily Record