HEARTS found themselves in a sweat today as they fear the possibility of ankle ligament damage to top goalscorer Rudi Skacel.

The influential Czech was withdrawn eight minutes from the end of yesterday's 3-2 victory at Livingston after suffering several knocks to his ankle.

He was due to be assessed by the Hearts medical staff at Riccarton today, with club officials praying there is no long-term damage to a midfielder who has plundered 16 goals already this season.

"Rudi got as couple of kicks on the ankle and then he blocked the ball in a tackle and it opened up the ankle joint a little," revealed Jim Duffy, Hearts' director of football. "It was quite tender yesterday and it will be a couple of days before we can tell if it will be any more significant.

"We don't know if it's his ligaments at the moment but if there is enough impact on a joint then it can give longer problems than just a couple of days.

"He was seeing physios today and over the first day or two we just need to let it rest and see if it settle down quickly enough. It is giving him pain at the moment due to the heavy knocks he took on it. We suspect it will remain sore for him for the next couple of days but how long after that we won't know until it gets fully assessed."

After complaining of a tight hamstring, striker Edgaras Jankauskas was replaced by Roman Bednar, who eventually scored Hearts' decisive third goal, and Duffy revealed that Deividas Cesnauskis was also withdrawn due to a minor injury.

"Cesnauskis had a muscle problem, like a spasm in the thigh which I think was simply down just to fatigue than anything else. He was complaining of cramp and it will settle down, but you don't have time for that to happen in a match. He should be OK in a couple of days.

"Edgaras was feeling a little tight around his hamstring but, again, nothing that a day or so's rest shouldn't cure. Those two aren't major concerns."

Head coach Graham Rix intimated his delight at prising three points from West Lothian after Livingston twice levelled the score at 1-1 and then 2-2, but he believes the game should have been put beyond the SPL's bottom side long before Bednar's 87th-minute winner.

"That's something we have to work on - killing games off," said Rix.

"I think overall we probably deserved the three points and I was delighted with that.

"After Saturday's results it was imperative that we won. We made the boys aware of that and they understood that. There were a lot of situations in the game where we could have put it beyond Livingston.

"We didn't take them and they've scored two goals out of nothing, really.

"But we still found enough from somewhere to produce a victory, so I take my hat off to the lads for keeping going right to the end. They showed good spirit and scored some good goals.

"Jankauskas' goal was excellent - good movement and a good header.

"Bednar's finish was excellent and I'm delighted for him after his last substitute appearance. I think a lot of SPL sides would like to be able to put him on with 15 minutes left."

Hearts reserves play their Livingston counterparts at Almondvale tomorrow afternoon. The match kicks off at 2pm.

Taken from the Scotsman