Michael Stewart in talks with Hearts over possibility of a third spell at club

MICHAEL Stewart could be set for a third stint as a Hearts player after the 30-year-old midfielder opened talks on the prospect of becoming new manager Paulo Sergio's first signing at Tynecastle.

Stewart is a free agent after finishing the season with English League One side Charlton Athletic. He featured in nine of the club's games after signing a short-term deal in March.

It is just over a year since Stewart left Hearts for a second time, signing for Turkish club Genclerbirligi, but the Scot returned to Britain in January, leaving the club by mutual consent.

Stewart has been training with Hibernian during the summer to keep fit but has now held initial discussions with their city rivals Hearts over a possible move back to Gorgie.

If he completes his return in the coming days, Hearts would be able to register Stewart for their Europa League play-off tie with Tottenham Hotspur, as long as his registration was completed by 11pm next Wednesday.

Stewart started his career with Manchester United, spending time on loan at Nottingham Forest and Hearts before leaving Old Trafford to move to Hibernian in 2005.

After coming to the end of his contract at Easter Road in 2007, Stewart crossed the city to join Hearts and spent three years in Gorgie. His departure from Hearts cannot exactly be described as amicable after an apparent fall-out with then manager Jim Jefferies.

In April 2010, Stewart was stripped of the captaincy in the dressing room minutes before a 2-0 defeat to Motherwell. The player was also substituted at half-time during that game and afterwards Jefferies, explaining his decision to hand Marius Zaliukas the captain's armband instead, said: "Michael was made captain here by the previous manager (Csaba Laszlo]. It does not matter if he's been captain here before, I'm in charge now and I'm at looking at things differently."

Jefferies eventually decided that Edinburgh-born Stewart did not feature in his long-term plans and he exited by mutual consent. The player trained with the youths in his final days at the club.

Hearts would not confirm last night that they had opened talks with Stewart's representatives. Asked about potential new faces at a pre-match briefing ahead of tomorrow's match with Aberdeen, manager Sergio said: "We are talking about that, but I don't think I should talk about that. If we can make a few adjustments we can have a strong team."

Stewart has made four appearances for Scotland, picking up caps in friendly matches against Northern Ireland, South Korea, Nigeria and South Africa between 2002 and 2008.