Hearts set for double injury boost as Robbie Neilson reveals if Hamilton surface will impact starting XI

Hearts take on Hamilton Accies in the fifth round of the Scottish Cup on Friday night in front of the BBC cameras and Robbie Neilson is expecting to have Cammy Devlin and Michael Smith available.

Smith has missed the last three matches due to an ankle issue, while Cammy Devlin has sat out the last two fixtures after being replaced with an injury during the draw with Livingston at the end of last month. Neilson confirmed both had returned to full first-team training ahead of the trip to the ZLX Stadium.

Hearts will have to do without Lawrence Shankland. The team's captain and top scorer is suspended after being red carded in the 3-0 win over Hibs in the previous round.

“It's obviously disappointing to lose Lawrence and we will need to deal with it but we’ve got guys who can score goals and guys desperate to get into the team and do well when they do get in the team," Neilson said. “That's what the squad depth is there for.”

Having made changes due to the artificial surface for the recent encounter with Livingston, Neilson does not plan on doing similar on Friday night for Accies’ plastic pitch.

“Not really, we’ve got quite a big turnaround after it," he said. “I think we are nine days before the next game. Previously when we've been on astro we’ve maybe had a game two or three days later and it can affect them looking forward so sometimes we balance the team out a wee bit. With regards to tomorrow’s game we've got nine games until we play Motherwell so the boys will have recovered by then.”