Hearts star Driver could be fit for start of new season

The winger – who has been the subject of interest from West Ham, Burnley and Cologne – underwent revolutionary treatment last week to scrape his troublesome thigh tendon in a bid to remove defective collagen.

Jefferies is keen to keep Driver at the club and is hoping to have him available for Hearts' Scottish Premier League opener at home to St Johnstone in August and said: "Everything went well with Andrew's treatment.

"It's going to affect his pre-season training but he is hopefully not going to miss too much football.

"The start of the season is still six weeks away and we hope that he has got a chance of making that. If he does, it won't be much into the season before he is back and playing first-team football again.

"It will be a case of him gradually building up his fitness, but he is just a young boy so we're hoping everything will go to plan.

"He had a torrid time last year and this injury has proved to be a bit of a problem for him but we seem to have got to the bottom of it now. We're keeping our fingers crossed that he'll be able to stay injury-free next season."

Meanwhile, Hearts have won an action lodged against the club by agent George Wright for fees in relation to Craig Gordon's move to Sunderland.

Wright had claimed that he was entitled to payment as part of the deal that led to the Scotland goalkeeper's move in 2007 but his claim was dismissed by the arbitration tribunal. A Hearts spokesperson said: "We were confident that there was no substance to the claims being made and that this was an opportunistic move on the part of the agent.

"The agent was neither acting for the player or the club at the time of the transfer and played no part in the player's move to the English Premiership team."