Injury crisis leaves Jim Jefferies almost scared to train squad

JIM Jefferies admits he is "almost scared to train" his Hearts players, so bad has the club's injury crisis become.

Jefferies is currently without an entire starting XI with defenders Marius Zaliukas and Dawid Kucharski the latest to be sidelined.

"I'm almost scared to train as we can't afford any more injuries," Jefferies told the Hearts website.

"We can't get outside as the pitches are still frozen so we could be back at Tynecastle later in the week to make use of the undersoil heating.

"We'll just need to stick to indoors for now but, with the number of guys we have out at the moment, we need to watch what we are doing when it comes to physical contact, especially with the defenders."

One piece of good news for Jefferies arrived in the shape of Kucharski's groin problem, which is not as bad as first feared and could clear up in time for Sunday's Clydesdale Bank Premier League game at Tannadice against Dundee United.

"Not a lot showed up on the scan for Kucharski so he has an outside chance for the weekend," Jefferies added. "It's not as bad as we first thought, although clearly we can't take any risks with him.

"If he misses Sunday, he is not going to be out much longer than that.

"He's better than Marius, who's looking at two to four weeks."

Meanwhile, Jefferies rejected fears that goalkeeper Marian Kello's fractured wrist could sideline him for six weeks.

Kello, 27, suffered the injury in training last week and missed Saturday's dramatic 1-0 win at Aberdeen.

Jefferies expects him back before the end of the month, though the player faces a race against time to be fit for the 20 March Edinburgh derby.

Left-back Lee Wallace required stitches in a head wound suffered at Pittodrie and, despite being named in the Scotland team to face the Czech Republic in tonight's friendly, remains a doubt. He faces a fitness test this morning.

Ismael Bouzid (hamstring) and Suso Santana (thigh) could both return on Sunday. Ian Black, Jose Goncalves, Andrew Driver, Ruben Palazuelos, Scott Robinson, Craig Thomson, Johnny Stewart (all knee) and Jamie MacDonald (ankle) were all absent at Aberdeen through injury.

On top of that, Saturday's match-winner Eggert Jonsson is banned on Sunday, a fate which will also befall Laryea Kingston if he fails in an appeal against his sending-off at Pittodrie. Jefferies later confirmed that, like Kello, Black was a doubt for the Edinburgh derby, but Robinson and MacDonald would both return to training next week.

Thomson is still a fortnight away and Driver's comeback date will only be set once he starts running again.