Ksanavicius agrees new loan deal to stay at Hearts

Ksanavicius has made 26 appearances for Hearts this season, scoring just one goal, but has proved to be one of the more popular Lithuanian players with the club's supporters.

The news that he is to prolong his spell with the Jambos will be welcomed by the Hearts fans, particularly after the departure of top scorer Andrius Velicka to Viking Stavanger last month. Roman Bednar and Michal Pospisil have also all left the club in recent months, leaving interim head coach Stephen Frail short of options up front.

Ksanavicius, meanwhile, was due to play in today's reserve match against Falkirk and Frail insisted that the 31-year-old remains an important part of his squad.

The player was dropped for the games against Motherwell and Inverness and played only a bit-part role in the 4-0 defeat to Rangers, but Frail said: "He is a Hearts player, he's an important part of the squad and we will probably have to use a lot of our players over the next few weeks as we have a difficult period of games coming up.

"I think he has done well for us this season, playing off the striker when we've had just one up front, although he has maybe tired a bit in recent weeks.

"We left him out of the game against Inverness for that reason and against Motherwell because we felt that the pitch was a bit too heavy. He's looked a bit leg-weary but, along with the rest of the squad, he's had a few days off and I'm sure he'll be fresh and ready to go again."

Frail was handed a bonus with the news that Michael Stewar
t looks likely to be fit for the trip to Love Street this weekend after returning to training yesterday.

Stewart has been out of action for the last three weeks after pulling his hamstring a couple of days before the defeat to Celtic at Parkhead.

"Michael has been out for a few weeks but should come be available for the weekend's game," added Frail. "We'll see how he is, but all being well he will come back into contention for Love Street which is good news.

"We are entering a crucial phase of the season as we attempt to make it into the top six and we want as many of our best players as possible to be available.

"The guys will hopefully be nice and refreshed after the weekend off and be raring to go again.

"The break was maybe not ideal for us as we had built up a little bit of momentum with the result over Inverness. But we'll knuckle down in the coming days."

Taken from the Scotsman