Marius Zaliukas out in cold after Hearts row

MARIUS ZALIUKAS' contract dispute with Hearts has cost him his international place with Lithuania.

Raimondas Zutautas, Lithuania's national coach, told the Evening News today that Zaliukas is not fit enough to play in tonight's European Championship qualifier against Spain having gone six weeks without competitive football.

The Hearts captain travelled to Salamanca for this evening's encounter but looked short of match practice in training sessions, according to Zutautas.

Zaliukas has not played competitively since August 21 after being frozen out of first-team affairs by the Tynecastle hierarchy. He angered majority shareholder Vladimir Romanov with exorbitant wage demands during contract negotiations and has been excluded from first-team affairs despite recovering from a knee injury last month.

Speaking from Lithuania's training base in Salamanca, Zutautas said: "Zaliukas is not going to play. He is very weak. He has not been involved in any game since August, this is the reason why he is weak.

"He must decide by himself if he wants to play in Scotland. He has a contract with Kaunas until summer 2011, but if the contract finishes with Hearts he is not going to play at Kaunas because they are in the third division. I don't think anybody would want him there."

Zaliukas was due to discover today that he is not in Zutautas' starting XI when the national coach names his team for a match with could have significant bearing on Scotland's Euro 2012 qualifying prospects.

Meanwhile, Hearts winger David Templeton made his Scotland Under-21 debut in last night's European Championship play-off tie against Iceland, coming on for the last five minutes. Eggert Jonsson played the full 90 minutes for Iceland.