Claudio Braga happy being cast Hearts’ main striker with Lawrence Shankland out

Claudio Braga insisted he was comfortable being cast as Hearts’ main source of firepower in the absence of injured captain Lawrence Shankland.

The pair have been the William Hill Premiership leaders’ two main goal threats this season, with Shankland notching 15 in all competitions and Braga chipping in with 12.

Asked if there was extra pressure on him to deliver now that the talismanic skipper is out until March with a hamstring issue, Portuguese forward Braga told Sky Sports: “If it’s pressure, it’s good pressure, to be honest.

“If it’s pressure for me to score goals, I’m happy with that.

“Of course, I won’t be able to do my job and Shankland’s job, but for sure, the guy that comes in, in his position, I’ll try my best to also partner with him.”

Braga admitted he could not have envisaged Hearts being six points clear of both Celtic and Rangers when he arrived from Norwegian second-tier side Aalesunds last summer.

However, he dismissed any notion that his team might be feeling the heat given their lofty status.

“It’s something that we try not to think about because we don’t want to put extra pressure on us,” said Braga. “We just try to take it game by game.

“To be honest, this is something so good that it’s easy to deal with. If you were maybe bottom of the league, then the pressure would be like, ‘oh, could we go down or are we going to have a bad season’?

“But right now, we’re having a good season. Nobody expects that from us, so hopefully we can just keep this momentum by taking it game by game.

“I think taking that pressure away from us until almost the end will be probably the way we should deal with it.”

Asked if Hearts could go all the way and win the title for the first time since 1960, Braga smiled: “I think everything is possible. In my history of life, I’ve been proven that everything is possible, literally.

“I would never expect maybe to come to a club like Hearts after being in the second league in Norway and doing as well as we are doing, so everything is possible.

“Just keep playing game by game and try to win the next game.”