After litany of injuries, Jason Thomson yearns to revive his Hearts career against St Mirren

Such significance would never normally be attached to a mid-January league visit from St Mirren, but the defender has issues right now. He has long yearned to establish himself as Hearts' permanent right-back and senses a priceless opportunity arising. Craig Thomson's injury, Eggert Jonsson's imperious midfield form and the erratic displays of Marius Cinikas mean the right side of defence is up for grabs.

Thomson has returned from injury with arms outstretched, desperate to seize his chance, and is expected to replace Cinikas in tomorrow's starting line-up.

A bizarre hamstring complaint which manifested itself in the form of back pain has finally subsided, but only after wreaking havoc with the player's aspirations for season 2009-10.

He waved Robbie Neilson off to Leicester City last summer believing that he would assume the club captain's position in the team.

Four-and-a-half years had passed since his debut aged 17 against Inverness Caledonian Thistle and, in his mind, it was long overdue that he imposed himself.

His body had other ideas. The aforementioned injury began to take hold just as the campaign got underway and Thomson was rendered a spectator as first Jonsson then his namesake Craig filled the position he believed should have been his.

To say he was frustrated would be seriously understating the case, but Hearts manager Csaba Laszlo never lost faith in this understated but extremely capable Riccarton academy graduate.

The manager is privately unimpressed with Cinikas, the on-loan Kaunas player who started Hearts' previous two matches against Hibernian and Aberdeen. Therefore, Thomson is preparing to maximise a timely opportunity against St Mirren.

"I don't know how many chances the gaffer has given me to establish myself now. I just keep getting injured, so hopefully this will be the time," he said, speaking exclusively to the Evening News. "Wee Thommo is out injured himself, Eggert is doing well at centre mid, where I think he prefers playing, and I think Bouzid will play centre-back tomorrow with Jose (Goncalves] out. That gives me a chance at right-back. I know he (Laszlo] rates me. He's given me my chance more than any other manager. It's good working with him. He'll tell me when I'm doing wrong and he'll praise me for something good. I just need to take my chance this time.

"I probably would have got the chance after Robbie left but injuries struck again. Thommo (Craig Thomson] came in and he's probably been one of the best players this season. You can't argue with that. If he wasn't doing so well I could maybe go and speak to the manager, but with him being in such good form it was hard to go and ask about getting a game.

"You could say Thommo made right-back his own position at the start of the season. Then I came in, Thommo was pushed forward to right midfield and I don't know if he or the gaffer know what his best position is.

"I just want to get in and get a run of games. I keep saying that and I've talked about it before, but I need to keep my place.

"Most of the boys thought I'd be the first-choice right-back this year, but wee Thommo stepped up and he's done exceptionally well. He has an injury now and I'm not sure how long that will keep him out. I just want to play until he's back and see how well I do. Hopefully, I can keep him out the team."

Thomson has spent almost five years as a peripheral member of the first-team squad. He first emerged from the youth ranks under John Robertson in 2005 but was quickly shunted into the background by the intense recruitment of players during season 2005/06. Understandably, the bit-part role no longer appeals at the age of 22.

"I did a lot of that last season, coming in when there was a suspension or an injury," Thomson continued. "I want to play every week and be involved in 38 games a season. I want to do that every season for as long as I'm here. I don't just want to be in and out the side like last year."

He resumed training with Hearts' first-team squad earlier this week after steriod injections were required to counter his injury. "The problem was my hamstrings but the pain was coming from my back," he explained. "It's probably happened four times since the start of the season and we had to get it right this time. I went for steroid injections into some tendon in my back which links to my hamstring. It seems to be okay just now so we'll see how it goes.

"I'm pain free, I've been that way for a couple of weeks now but I had to work with the physio to strengthen up the hamstrings and a couple of other muscles. I've done a variety of stuff so hopefully it doesn't come back."

After last weekend's defeat in the Scottish Cup, Thomson knows the onus is on him and his colleagues to rediscover a winning formula against Gus MacPherson's side.

"I wasn't up at Aberdeen, I watched the television highlights and you could see things didn't go the right way. The morale is fine, we've been training at Tynecastle this week and it's been at a high tempo. We trained at the stadium on Tuesday and Wednesday but we've gone back indoors at Riccarton for the last couple of days to protect the pitch. It was cutting up a bit but it was much better training outside. You can get a full 11-a-side game and work on tactics for the weekend game. You can't do that much inside the astrodome."

Thomson is ultra careful about which surface he trains on these days. He couldn't stomach another injury at such a vital juncture of his career.