Nade could be finished for season

Stephen Frail, the club's interim manager, confirmed today that Nade has not trained since suffering concussion against St Mirren two weeks ago and will not be available to face Falkirk.

The Frenchman's fitness for Hearts' remaining fixtures against Kilmarnock and Gretna – the Fir Park clash has now been switched to Tuesday, May 13 – is now doubtful at best, although Frail is keen to give him every possible opportunity.

"Nade won't be available for Monday. He still has the concussion problem and a few other things. He hasn't trained since the St Mirren game," said Frail.

"We'll need to see how he is next week and take it from there."

Audrius Ksanavicius is also out of Monday's game.

He is precluded from the Falkirk match as he is still recovering from a dose of chicken pox. Frail reported brighter news on Larry Kingston, however, and has reinstated Andy Driver to his squad.

"Larry is fine and looked really sharp the last week or so in training," he said. "He'll be included for Monday.

"Ksanavicius got quite a bad bout of chicken pox and he still hasn't been in for training since. He might be in over the weekend but I doubt he'll feature at Falkirk.

"Eggert Jonsson will hopefully train over the weekend along with Christos Karipidis. Those two should be okay."

Hearts remain hopeful of granting some first-team football to their Portuguese midfielder Bruno Aguiar, who has not played this season due to a persistent ankle problem.

"Bruno might also have a chance before the season is over but the more training he can get in first the better. If he does play, it will be more of a psychological thing for him," said Frail. "We have three first-team games in a short space of time and we simply have to deal with it. Again, there might be a chance for one or two of the younger lads to step up.

"Ryan McGowan is back training, which is a bonus because I thought I might have lost him for the rest of the season. He could feature before the end of the season but probably in one of the last two matches, if at all.

"We've arranged the East of Scotland Shield match with Hibs for next Wednesday and we might need to look at that again now because of the fixture situation."