Hearts' Tullberg putting the points first

He's yet to play an entire match for the Jambos, however, the 23-year-old is now back to full fitness and is desperate to get some in some game time.

Tullberg, who has been used as a substitute in Hearts' last three matches, only returned to Edinburgh at the beginning of last month having spent five months in his home country recovering from a torn quad muscle in his thigh.

But, while he's desperate to put his injury nightmare behind him, he acknowledges that, with the carrot of European football being dangled in front of them, points are more important that his personal battle. He said: "I have been out for a long time and I hope that in the remainder of the season I can maybe play a bit more than I have done in the previous matches.

"I know that I have to get fitter and I have been feeling good in training.

"After the Falkirk game, we have two weeks before our next match so that will help me.

"Obviously, I want to be involved but the most important thing is that the team is going to play Falkirk and it is a big match for us. We want to win if we are to be playing in Europe next season and all I want from this weekend is three points.

"I know that Falkirk will make it difficult for us. They have some very good players, Steven Pressley is one of them – I saw a couple of his games when he was with Randers in Denmark because one of my best friends plays for them. "But this game is not about Falkirk, we just have to concentrate on ourselves and if we can be at our best then I hope we can take all three points because we know that we have a few games left to qualify for Europe. I have learned to think only a couple of days or one week ahead, rather than a couple of months.

"So many things can change in a short space of time – I know that because of what happened with my injuries. For now, I am just taking it one day at a time."

Although Tullberg is fit once again, he concedes that the Hearts fans won't see the best of him until next season – if he's still around.

The frontman's loan deal from Reggina is up at the end of the season and he doesn't know whether that will mean a return to Italy for him in the summer or being farmed out for another year – at Tynecastle or elsewhere.

He continued: " I will not be at my very best in the final six weeks of the season here but I am sure that I will be good enough to help the team, so it is really up to the manager and whether he plays me. Now I feel a lot better than when I did when I came back from the injury.

"At the moment, it is good just to be involved again. I have never been injured for such a long period of time before in my career.

" It has been difficult but I am gradually getting back to normal and it is nice being back with the boys in training and in match situations.

"Maybe I have the chance to stay here on loan for one more year and then I will be able to prove to people what I can do, but even that is not something that I think about too much right now because no-one knows what will happen in the summer. But hopefully next season will be my year. My thigh is feeling better and in myself I feel better every week – and when you have been out of the team for a prolonged period you need a little bit of time to readjust to everything again and to get your match sharpness and match fitness back."

The re-emergence of Calum Elliot in the first-team at Tynecastle will make Tullberg's task of winning a place in the starting XI even more difficult.

Having scored two in the victory over Kilmarnock a couple of weeks ago and made a good impression against Celtic last Saturday, Elliot is likely to be given the nod again at the Falkirk Satdium tomorrow. But, having had to battle for a place in the Reggina side with the likes of former Juventus striker Nicola Amoruso, it's a situation Tullberg is familiar with.

He admitted: "I don't tend to think about the competition for places because I have had that for most of my career. I played last season in Serie A and also in Denmark and the other striker was the top goalscorer in the league at that time so I am used to it. The competition makes you a better player and I know that if I show my best then I will play. It is up to me now really.

"Calum scored two good goals against Kilmarnock the other week and he has been doing well, I like him, he is a good player and a good guy so I was happy for him. But to be honest I don't think about what the other strikers do, I just get on with my own job. I know that if I am at my best then I will hopefully be playing in the team.

"I don't know that there is pressure on me because as a football player there is always some kind of pressure or attention on you. I think that it did me good to stay in Italy for one year because very quickly I became used to the pressure. I was only 21 when I signed and within four days I was playing my first match at the Stadio del Alpi and I learned a lot.

"I am aware of the pressure but here I would say that it has been more frustration for me because I have not been able to show anyone what I can do."

Taken from the Scotsman