Jankauskas in frame for derby

EDGARAS Jankauskas is poised to make his return from injury in Sunday's Edinburgh derby.

The Hearts striker has not played since the Champions League qualifying defeat at AEK Athens on 23 August due to a persistent thigh problem. But head coach Valdas Ivanauskas believes the 31-year-old is on course for a place in the squad for the trip to Hibernian.

Although the Lithuanian striker did not play for the reserves yesterday in a 1-0 win over Aberdeen at Forthbank Stadium, Ivanauskas is hopeful he will be in contention for the first-team squad this weekend.

He said: "Edgaras is getting fitter and has trained for four days now. He is training well and looking good for the weekend. After so long out with injury, we need to be very careful because it is a little bit of a danger, basically.

"I wouldn't take a risk with him in the reserves. He is very experienced and we feel it is better that he just trains."

Michal Pospisil is another forward progressing from the dead leg he suffered at Rangers on 19 August, but the Czech suffered a minor setback in training.

Left wingers Neil McCann and Andrew Driver both extremely doubtful for Sunday.

• Rangers goalkeeper Lionel Letizi played his first game for almost two months to put himself in contention for a first team return against Inverness on Saturday. The summer signing played the full 90 minutes in the 3-2 reserve defeat by Celtic at Broadwood after a thigh injury.

Taken from the Scotsman