Ivanauskas has plenty of options as Pressley and Fyssas declared fit

PORTUGUESE defender Jose Goncalves, winger Neil McCann and Brazilian midfielder Sammy Camazzola are likely to be Hearts' only absentees for the Scottish Cup final with Gretna at Hampden on Saturday.

Left-back Goncalves, who can also deputise at centre-half, has lost his battle to be fit after tearing his hamstring on 15 April against Kilmarnock.

McCann, who played in Hearts' last cup-winning team in 1998, rejoined the club midway through the season but was injured on his debut against Kilmarnock on 21 January. He returned to training but broke down and needed an operation on torn medial knee ligaments.

Steven Pressley, the Hearts captain, and Takis Fyssas, the left-back, have suffered from back and groin problems respectively in recent weeks but neither has suffered any reaction after playing in last week's decisive league win over Aberdeen.

News that Hearts have almost a full squad to choose from is a boost for interim manager Valdas Ivanauskas, who rested nine first-team players for Sunday's final league game at Ibrox.

Coach John McGlynn said: "Everything is going just fine at the moment for the game. Both Steven Pressley and Takis have fully recovered and they trained on Tuesday with the rest of the boys. We have a more or less full strength team apart from Jose Goncalves, who is improving, but he will definitely not be involved in the game."

Centre-half Andy Webster is also back in training after an Achilles problem but Camazzola faces an anxious wait to learn the severity of the knee injury sustained in training on Tuesday. The on-loan Juventude player has not played in the first team since Hearts drew 0-0 with Inverness in December.

Ivanauskas said: "It's not good news for Sammy. It was a normal training session and he hurt his knee, it's the second time this season. It's not as bad as the last time, but it is serious and we will have to wait to find out how long he is out."

McGlynn has pinpointed the contributions of Pressley and Paul Hartley as the driving force behind the club's successful season. The coach has called on the Hearts squad to reward the pair with cup winners' medals.

McGlynn said: "What has driven the squad on through everything this year has been people like Elvis and Paul Hartley's determination to win something with Hearts.

"They probably realise that they won't have too many more chances to be successful and have been at clubs before who are not used to winning things.

"Steven was saying that to me yesterday, that you have to take this opportunity when it comes. He was telling me that he lost in a cup semi-final replay with Dundee United when they were big favourites to win against Kilmarnock. At that time, he probably thought he was going to play in another one fairly soon, but that was nine years ago and he is only just making it to the final now."

Taken from the Scotsman