Jim Jefferies has Marius Zaliukas and Marian Kello available again

Both were ruled out of the Edinburgh club's game against Rangers at the weekend - Zaliukas supposedly because Hearts owner Vladimir Romanov feared he would be sent off by referee Iain Brines and Kello because of a long-running but unspecified disagreement.

With several players unavailable due to injury, and defenders Lee Wallace and Andy Webster doubtful, Jefferies hopes that Romanov will now allow him to select a team from every fit member of his squad. Jefferies said: "My job is to pick the best team available. Marius wasn't available on Saturday. He is now.

"Marian Kello I hope to be available. He's a different scenario from Zaliukas. His situation was totally different. It's something we discuss every day until it's resolved. It can't drag on.

"I think this would be the time to put it to bed and get him available."

Jefferies thought the issue with the goalkeeper had been resolved last month when Kello was reinstated for a home game against Motherwell. A week later, however, the Slovakian was ruled out again on Romanov's orders. The manager added: "I was surprised the folloiwng week that something occurred that we'd hoped was cleared up. There was just a little delay in something.

"It was hoped that week it would be sorted, but it might take place this week, and hopefully before the game it will get sorted out. That's all I can tell you, but I'm expecting him to be all right."

The exclusion of Hearts' goalkeeper and captain from a match which was vital to Rangers' title bid has inevitably generated conspiracy theories - and fuel is likely to be added to the fire if they are back in the home line-up tonight. Jefferies, however, insisted that his only concern was his own club's fight to secure third place in the SPL. He said: "Have I got any conspiracy theories about Motherwell? They played their strongest team against us a couple of weeks ago then left four in the stand against Dundee United, who are challenging us for third place. They're preparing for a cup final and are trying to manage their squad.

"We never complained about that. We understand why Motherwell did it. What we're more concerned about is the accusation that we gave Rangers an easy time," he continued, referring to Hearts' 4-0 defeat on Saturday. "We had I think nine players out, most of them for a genuine reason. If somebody else had pulled out it would have been one less for the bench because that's all I had available.

"So we shouldn't be accused of lying down or not trying hard enough. Rangers were more fired up than they probably would have been because Celtic had lost at Inverness, so maybe they (Celtic] shouldn't have put us in that position. Rangers had a real go knowing if they won that game they were going to be in pole position, which they did.

"I'm not trying to beat Celtic tomorrow to do Rangers a favour. We want to do it for ourselves and our supporters, and we might have to do it to get third place. And we didn't go to Ibrox to do Celtic a favour. We went there to try and win or get the point that would get us third place. It was a very difficult match that was made harder by the number of players we had out. End of story."It may be end of story as far as that particular game is concerned, but not team selection.

Whatever motivates Romanov, his exclusion of two players on Saturday went against the best interests of his club. When asked if he had ever tried to explain that to the owner, Jefferies said he had so far favoured a more diplomatic approach. he said: "No, I've never said that. It's up to me how I handle that situation if it ever comes again. It's not the first time, I believe, that it's happened.

"It's never, ever been a problem for me, up until Saturday because we were a little bit short. When you're the manager of a football club there's other things to consider and you have to accept that sometimes you don't like things. You then take stock of it and find out if the next time it comes around would you manage it differently? And I'm telling you I would."

Romanov is expected to attend tonight's match, and then finalise signing plans for next season with Jefferies in a meeting which was agreed before Saturday's events.

"This was the best chance to come over because time's running out for players that are at other clubs who we're interested in, especially freedom-of-contract players because they can't hang around for ever," said Jefferies. "So, we're trying to solve that and also there's boys waiting to find out here, boys we've got options on who will be waiting to see if the club want to make them offers. So, these are the discussions we'll have to have very, very soon and it will probably be over the time when he comes over and we can sit down and discuss the way forward. I'm sure there will be one or two other things on the agenda."