Hearts 'will be ready for Celtic challenge' despite key absentees

Derek McInnes is adamant the loss of key duo Lawrence Shankland and Cammy Devlin will not signal the start of Hearts’ demise as he vowed they will be “ready” for Celtic on Sunday.

Supporters have been left demoralised by news over the past week that arguably their two most important players have been sidelined by injuries until March at a time when they are six points clear at the top of the William Hill Premiership.

In addition, the influential Beni Baningime is suspended for the next two matches and fellow midfielder Tomas Magnusson is a doubt for Sunday’s top of the table showdown with Celtic, meaning the Jambos will potentially be without four members of their regular starting XI for the visit of Martin O’Neill’s side.

McInnes is in no mood to allow despondency to creep into the Hearts camp ahead of one of their biggest league matches in decades.

“We have to deal with losing key players and I get that there’ll be a lot of focus and a lot of chat about the players that are not available,” said the manager.

“All of a sudden there will be talk about what we’re missing and all the problems arising with injuries and suspensions and that, but my job is to focus on who is available. I can’t do anything about the ones that aren’t available.

“Nobody’s sitting feeling sorry for ourselves, sucking our thumb and thinking, ‘poor me, poor me’.

“We’ve got a brilliant opportunity. We’re six points clear, we’ve got a chance to take on one of our closest rivals at the weekend and we’ll be ready for them. Regardless of what Hearts team goes out, we’ll be ready.

“I don’t want anybody of a Hearts persuasion to lose any sort of hope or optimism. It’s a brilliant game to be involved in and we’re really looking forward to it so whatever Hearts team is put out we’ll be ready for Celtic and we’ll be ready to compete.

“We believe we can win the game on Sunday regardless who’s fit and who’s not.”

Hearts could move nine points clear of Celtic if they defeat the champions for a third time this season, but McInnes played down any notion that such an outcome would represent “a statement win”, saying: “I’ve had that question asked to me over the last few months -‘would this be a statement win?’ – and it goes on to the next week.

“Every game that goes by, the three points seem bigger than the previous one. There’s no doubt when you’re playing teams around about you, regardless if you’re at the bottom or at the top, if you can beat teams that are around you, it’s a bit extra significant.

“Celtic will think the same but each time we’ve played Celtic and Rangers, who are the closest teams to us, we’ve dealt with the games brilliantly and we’re hoping that can be the case again on Sunday.”