Relief for Hearts after Bouzid returns without serious injury

However, doctor s have give the Algerian the all-clear and Bouzid was last night due back in Edinburgh along with physio Rob Marshall after being kept in hospital on Saturday night following the 3-2 win in the testimonial for Neil Harris at the New Den.

A Hearts spokesperson said: "We are obviously relieved to hear that Ismael's injury is not as bad as feared and we look forward to welcoming him home.

"We'd like to sincerely thank Millwall for their support, the club were absolutely first class in providing us with help during a very difficult situation over the last few hours for which we're really grateful."

Despite being told he has not fractured his skull, it remains to be seen if Bouzid will be fit for the start of the season on 14 August when Hearts host St Johnstone.

Millwall midfielder Marc Laird, who was brought up as a Hearts supporter, says there is no way team-mate Morison deliberately tried to hurt Bouzid.

Eggert Jonsson also needed treatment for a head-knock sustained in a collision with Morison, just moments after Bouzid fell to the ground in agony, and didn't reappear for the second period.

Crawley Town defender Sam Rents was left with a fractured cheekbone and broken nose in a challenge with Morison in a pre-season friendly three weeks ago but Edinburgh-born Laird has jumped to the defence of his New Den colleague. He said: "He's not a malicious player at all, he is competitive and I know he would never do that to hurt somebody.

"There was a real concern on the bench when Bouzid went down, it's not nice to see any professional being stretchered off. Steve is really whole-hearted, he did it a couple of weeks ago and that was an accident as well."

Jefferies was delighted with Hearts' performance, which followed their 2-1 win over Gillingham last week. Both results were the perfect response to an underwhelming friendly defeat away to Dunfermline before they headed south. "I thought they were outstanding," Jefferies said of his team. "It is always nice to win the games but the performance was excellent.

We were by far the better team in the opening 35 minutes until the injury.

"That took the wind out of our sails. The equaliser was a free header in the six-yard box."

Craig Thomson scored two smart free kicks to secure victory, with Hearts having taken the lead from Jonsson's penalty after Paul Robinson tripped Lee Wallace, then fallen behind to two goals from Liam Trotter. Thomson's first was curled into the net from 22 yards off the underside of the crossbar and his second was even better, finding the net, via a post, from 30 yards.

Jefferies added: "I had to tell Craig Thomson to take the one at the end. It was a better distance than the first one. We were screaming at him to have another go. It was two fantastic free kicks from him."

Thomson has long been regarded as one of Hearts' outstanding talents and he showed his versatility by operating in right midfield during the first half and then, after the break, reverting to right full back.

Bouzid's absence may well have contributed to Trotter's first goal when he rose unchallenged to head home a corner, and, nine minutes later, the same player powered another header past Hearts goalkeeper Marion Kello.

Hearts: Kello, Barr, Bouzid (McGowan 36), Zaliukas, Wallace, C Thomson, Jonsson (Suso 45), Mrowiec, Stevenson, Templeton (Novikovas 83), Elliot (Smith 83).

Taken from the Scotsman