Christian Nade reveals that personal problems were behind absence

The Frenchman has revealed how issues in his private life led to him being dropped from the first team by manager Csaba Laszlo, pictured below.

And, while unwilling to go into detail, Nade admits the situation left him unable to focus on football.

The striker made his return to the top team last Saturday, however, coming on as a second-half substitute against Aberdeen at Pittodrie, and was hoping to be involved again today when Falkirk were the visitors to Tynecastle.

He said: "I am happy to be back, I had a few problems with my fitness and away from football a few things happened in my life as well. The manager spoke to me and said that my head was not in football so it was better for me to go into the reserve team and to try to concentrate on my game again, hopefully score some goals and get back into the first team.

"I feel that I am ready to come back now. I am very confident, I came back into the side against Aberdeen and I thought that I played quite well.

"I am thinking only of football and I hope that the problems do not come back or try to get into my life again. The club and the coach helped me a lot.

"We are here to play football and that is it. But some people want to put your private life into football and I don't think this is fair. Even if it is not true they say and do things to make you look bad.

"But I think the manager has pressed the right button in my head to make me forget about this. He maybe said some things to me that were difficult for me to hear but I think I needed to hear them. He spoke to me and said that to be fit, maybe I should think about my personal life. This problem started at the end of last season and has continued this season.

"I just want to enjoy playing football and winning games. I don't think these people care if you play well, they just wanted to get into my life to try to get something to show to everybody."

On top of the problems he faced off the field, Nade was recovering from a hernia operation in the run-up to the campaign. He added: "I've not really played a lot and I was injured just before the start of the season. I probably came back too early and that meant that I couldn't work enough during pre-season to be ready for the first game.

"Maybe I made a mistake with that. After every game I was just down all of the time. I have tried to pick myself up again. Even on the pitch, the coach could see that there was something wrong and told me to take my time."

Now that he is back in the side, Nade is keen to find form – and hit the back of the net for Laszlo's side. The Frenchman has yet to score this season but believes his side, first and foremost, must learn to defend their own net before they concentrate on scoring goals of their own. He continued: "I am glad to be back and I just want to help the team out and to come back in the right way, to win some games.

"If winning some games means that I score, then I will be very happy to do that. We do need a striker who scores 15 or 20 goals but, at the same time, we need to think about the fact that we have only had one clean sheet this season.

"We need to do something to protect the defence and, after that, we can concentrate on scoring goals. I need to protect my keeper first and then think about getting a win. If you don't lose goals then you always have a chance to win the game."