Hearts to assess Zander Clark injury after taking no chances with goalkeeper in Dunfermline friendly

Hearts goalkeeper Zander Clark felt an issue in his leg during the warm-up against Dunfermline.

The 31-year-old had been due to play the first 45 minutes of Sunday’s friendly at East End Park, but with 15 minutes to go before kick-off, he trudged back down the tunnel and did not reappear. Youngster Harry Stone played the full match and made some good saves in a 1-1 draw against the Pars, but with regular No 1 Craig Gordon still recovering from his leg break, Clark is the only experienced goalkeeper on the books at Tynecastle. McAvoy said he was not prepared to risk aggravating the problem further.

“Zander just felt a wee niggle when he kicked so he didn’t want to take any chances,” said McAvoy. “We will find out further. But I don’t think it looks that bad. He just felt something in his leg. We will get him assessed. Stonesy is a good young goalie, we told him to get a good 90 minutes under his belt, see how he does and how he reacts to it.”

The match itself was a stereotypical friendly: slow pace, little intensity, littered with substitutions. Hearts brought more than 3000 supporters to sun-kissed Fife as they got their first look at the team this pre-season on Scottish soil. Dunfermline had the best chance of the first half when former Jambo Craig Wighton was denied by a smart one-handed save from Stone. Hearts improved on 69 minutes when Liam Boyce and Beni Baningime, both working their way back from long-term knee injuries, came on. The former set up 18-year-old full-back Luke Rathie to open the scoring with a low angled drive on 75 minutes but Hearts could not hold out for the win, with the unfortunate Peter Haring diverting Lewis McCann’s cutback into his own net with four minutes remaining.

Luke Rathie opened the scoring for Hearts with this angled drive.

“It was good to get more minutes in the boys,” said McAvoy. “First half we were good at times. You could see how we are trying to build from the back, through the thirds, get them moving, bringing in some rotations and getting everyone comfortable on the ball. We had a few good opportunities to try and score but sharpness will be the last thing that will come. We’ve just got to keep working away with that. Second half we changed it and weren’t anywhere near as fluent as we hoped. It was great to get the three Australian boys back [Nathaniel Atkinson, Kyle Rowles and Cammy Devlin], along with Yutaro [Oda] and Beni and Boycey coming into the fold.”

McAvoy’s Dunfermline counterpart James McPake, who was able to field new signing Michael O’Halloran, commented: “It was good game against a good opponent. The two teams worked really hard in tough conditions. From our point of view, it was really important to get some minutes into players.” On O’Halloran’s arrival, McPake added: “He’s a player I’ve coached and played against. We know the qualities he will add to the squad. He’s in good condition. There’s lots to Michael’s game. He’s still as explosive as he was but he needs to play football. Here is the right place for him to do that.”

The Pars have one more pre-season friendly, away at Alloa Athletic on Tuesday, before their Viaplay Cup campaign begins with a Fife derby away to Raith Rovers on Saturday evening. Hearts are now scheduled to play two closed-door matches in England, against Fleetwood and Wigan, before welcoming Leeds United to Tynecastle at the end of the month.