Lee Wallace to travel to England with Hearts

LEE Wallace should be fit for the start of the new season, despite tearing his calf during Hearts' recent training camp in Italy.

Manager Jim Jefferies was initially told the Scotland international would be out of action until the middle of August. However, the injury is not as bad as first feared and the full-back could even travel with the squad to London at the end of next week for two games against Gillingham and Millwall.

"Lee's injury is improving and is better than we anticipated," said Jefferies. "He'll do a bit of running next week and build up from there. There's no point pushing him, especially with a small tear, but he could come to England with us which is good news."

The trip south will come too soon for new signing Kevin Kyle; however, Jefferies is hopeful the striker will have recovered from a small operation on his groin to face Wolves and Blackburn at Tynecastle early next month.

Meanwhile, South African trialist Gordon Gilbert has failed to win a move to Hearts. The former East Fife defender played the full 90 minutes for the reserves in Tuesday night's goalless draw against Bonnyrigg Rose, but Jefferies has no plans to pursue an interest.