Hristos to fly in

HRISTOS KARIPIDIS is expected to fly to Edinburgh and join Hearts by the end of the week after PAOK Salonika vowed not to stand in the way of his transfer.

The 23-year-old Greek defender held critical discussions with his club's president, Ioannis Goumenos, in Salonika yesterday to outline his desire to continue his footballing development in Edinburgh.

Karipidis was given vital assurances during the meeting that PAOK will acquiesce to his wishes and the Greeks are now close to agreeing a fee with Hearts which is thought to be in the region of £200,000. Paul Koutsoliakos, who represents the centre-back, said that the green light has been given to the deal: "The PAOK president said that he would not be a barrier to the move to Hearts.

"He is happy for the move to go through once the fee has been agreed, so maybe it will only be a day or so before Hristos can fly to Scotland.

"I have spoken with people at Hearts and they tell me they have a good feeling about the deal now and they believe they are near to an agreement with PAOK."

Valdas Ivanauskas and the Hearts squad flew out to Bosnia-Herzegovina for their Champions League second qualifying round second leg this morning but will have to defend their 3-0 first leg lead against Siroki Brijeg without Lithuanian striker Edgaras Jankauskas after he suffered a hamstring injury.

Head coach Ivanauskas said: "It's a blow for us. He damaged his hamstring in training last night. I don't know how long he will be out for. I spoke to our physios and they told me he will need to rest for two or three days.

"I don't know if he will make Sunday [against Celtic]. It's still doubtful. He probably has a 50/50 chance and we'll wait until we get back to Edinburgh to see."

Hearts are also mindful that the temperature in the Pecara Stadium will be around 35 degrees Celsius come kick-off time against Siroki Brijeg tomorrow evening.

Daytime temperatures in the region are presently hovering around 40 degrees, with the mercury only dropping fractionally as evening sets in.

The Tynecastle players also face an eight-hour journey home through Wednesday night.

Having flown into Mostar today, their flight back to Edinburgh is due to depart from the Croatian city of Dubrovnik at 3.15am on Thursday morning, meaning the squad face a three-hour coach journey from Bosnia to Croatia straight after the match.

The trip is sure to test Hearts' endurance ahead of Celtic's visit and assistant coach John McGlynn admitted today that the players' schedule throughout this week will have to be carefully constructed to compensate.

"It's going to be difficult with things like organising full training sessions with the lads because we're off to Bosnia, the game is tomorrow and we aren't back until the early hours of Thursday morning. It will only be a light recovery session for the squad on Thursday.

"We won't be doing a lot on Friday because we've got Celtic on Sunday, so our first-team training will be limited this week because of games and travelling."

Paul Hartley, who has been absent through Hearts' pre-season campaign due to a persistent groin problem, is making progress towards a return although Sunday will come too quickly for him, as will next week's expected first leg of the final Champions League qualifier against AEK Athens at Murrayfield.

"He'll need to be involved in a reserve game before going back into the first team," continued McGlynn. "The reserve fixtures restart for us on August 8 against Celtic, so that might be ideal timing for him."

Scotland under-19 defender Lee Wallace, who signed a new five-year deal last night, is added to the Hearts squad.

Taken from the Scotsman