Hearts concern as centre-back replaced with injury on international duty

Hearts could be set for another injury headache after Lewis Neilson was replaced while playing for Scotland Under-21s.

The centre-back, making his debut for the national team at this level, went down after 29 minutes and signalled to come off against Northern Ireland in the friendly. He was replaced by Liverpool forward Ben Doak who would go on to score in the 3-1 win.

Such a moment will cause concern amongst Hearts’ management team and fans.

The club have had plenty of defensive injury issues already this campaign with Nathaniel Atkinson, Stephen Kingsley, Craig Halkett and Kye Rowles all missing games.

Kingsley picked up a knock in the weekend's win over Motherwell but played the full 90 minutes, while Atkinson returned to action against the Steelmen.

Rowles fractured his metatarsal against St Johnstone at the end of August but could be back in October. Meanwhile, Halkett saw a recurrence of a hamstring issue in the 2-0 win over RFS in the Conference League last week.

Hearts' Lewis Neilson was replaced due to an injury while playing for Scotland 21s. (Photo by Ross Parker / SNS Group)