Hearts: Steven Naismith close to return but blow for Peter Haring

Steven Naismith could return against Aberdeen in Hearts' Premiership opener.

There is the small matter of Naismith having to sign a contract first. Due to a complicated financial clause, he is unable to officially join another club from Norwich City until August.

But this has been described as a formality and Levein is planning for the talisman striker to be available when Hearts kick off their league campaign at Pittodrie.

The on-loan Naismith missed the end of last season, including the Scottish Cup final, due to a knee ligament injury sustained against Celtic at the end of last year.

“He’s back in full training,” said Levein. “Part of me had thought that he might be ready for the Stenhousemuir game [tomorrow night] but it’s just a little bit early. If there’s a reserve game next week, he could take part in a bit of that. But he’s close.

“Obviously, we need to do the contract stuff but he’s close.”

Definitely missing from that trip will be Haring, with Levein having to accept the midfielder will miss a significant portion of the first half of the season due to an ongoing pelvic problem. Fellow midfielder Ryan Edwards, meanwhile, is close to agreeing a deal to join English League One side Burton Albion.

Unlike Naismith, Haring was rushed back for the Scottish Cup final, something Levein accepts was a risk. The manager stressed the Austrian midfielder backed this decision but the cost of appearing in what proved an ultimately futile exercise following the 2-1 defeat by Celtic is a longer spell on the sidelines.

“That [two months] is what’s expected and we’re going to treat it conservatively and give him a bit longer to rest up,” said Levein. “Bringing him back for the cup final was the reason it didn’t clear up properly. We knew it was a risk and Peter was happy to play in the cup final.

“With Peter, sometimes you take a chance and as long as the player is fully on board I don’t mind doing that. Peter is fine about it. It’s just now waiting until he gets up to speed. It’s not easy to pinpoint exactly what the problem is.”

Due to the run of injuries continuing into a new season, Levein has ordered a review of the club’s training regime. He has already restricted the players to just two pitches at Riccarton – the ones that most closely resemble the pitch at Tynecastle.

Although he argued the majority of injuries are the type that occur in impact situations during games and can’t be helped, he accepts it would not harm to take a closer look at the club’s day-to-day training schedule.

Craig Wighton, who injured his knee in the Angus Beith benefit game v Inverness Caledonian Thistle, is back in light training. Ben Garuccio, meanwhile, is continuing to recover from a cruciate injury back home in Australia and will return next month. Christophe Berra, John Souttar and striker Uche Ikpeazu all missed long spells last season, along with Naismith.

“We’ve looked at the whole thing in great depth,” said Levein. “We train on a lot of different pitches here and we decided we’re going to stick to a couple to see if that same surface helps. We’ve looked into it in great detail and when you go down the injuries – Callumn Morrison tore his cartilage in a game, Marcus Godinho did the same – I don’t know if you call it just bad luck. We couldn’t find any pattern or any reason for it.”

Meanwhile, Levein confirmed Aaron Hickey will start tomorrow night’s Betfred Cup tie against Stenhousemuir after being an unused substitute against Cowdenbeath last week.

The manager described the 17-year-old left-back, who rose to prominence after starting the last two game of last season, including the Scottish Cup final when just 16, as the most two-footed young player he has ever seen.

“He was a midfield player here as a kid, went to Celtic as a midfielder player and then came back here,” explained Levein.

“They moved him around a little bit and the thing about him is that he can play left-back and right-back and you wouldn’t know if he’s left-footed or right-footed. I’ve never seen a player as comfortable on both sides which in the full back position makes him helluva valuable because he can play both.”

Asked if Hickey was genuinely two-footed, he added: “The most I’ve ever seen. I was really two-footed as well but the good thing is none of you can remember me playing so you can’t argue! He is genuinely. The coaches didn’t even know – some of them thought he was right- footed, some thought he was left-footed.”