Kyle return on hold after injury setback

The 30-year-old had targeted Sunday’s Edinburgh derby for a comeback, but had a reaction to his hip injury during his rehabilitation and is still two to three weeks away from resuming full-contact training with the first-team squad, a Hearts spokesman said yesterday. It will be several more weeks after that before he can come into contention for a place in Paulo Sergio’s team.

Hearts’ Scottish Cup defeat by St Johnstone back in January was the last time Kyle played, while the derby a week earlier was the last time he scored. It was no coincidence that Hearts’ form slumped once the striker was sidelined, and although their league form this season has been better, they have yet to hit the heights they reached last autumn when the former Scotland player was at his best.

Although Kyle was a key player last season, a different style of play has been introduced by Sergio since taking over from Jim Jefferies at the start of this month. Having been told by club owner Vladimir Romanov to convert Hearts to playing in a more continental manner, the Portuguese manager has introduced a more considered passing game which is not a natural fit with Kyle’s very British approach.

Sergio has yet to settle on a first-choice starting XI – indeed, after Sunday’s 2-0 win over Hibernian he insisted he did not need to do so. Nonetheless, it cannot augur well for Kyle that the manager has made it clear he does not rate John Sutton.

Jefferies signed the Englishman from Motherwell during the close season having identified the need for a target man who could lead the line in Kyle’s absence – or perhaps at times play alongside him. Sutton scored twice in the recent 3-0 win over Aberdeen, but he was omitted from the squad for the Hibs game and for the match against Spurs last Thursday.

Speaking a couple of days before that latter match, Sergio said his strikers had different qualities, but was less than complimentary about Sutton’s.

“I believe in them all,” he said. “They are different from each other and we don’t have two strikers who are the same.

“Sutton is a big guy without too much mobility, but we have mobility in [Stephen] Elliott and Ryan [Stevenson].”

Elliott played on his own up front on Sunday. Stevenson, who scored the opening goal, was in an attacking midfield role.