Hearts' Jamie Walker now free to talk to other clubs

The Hearts manager Craig Levein has revealed that injured attacker Jamie Walker is already permitted to speak to other clubs '“ and might already be doing so for all he knows.

The Tynecastle club are braced to lose the player, who was linked with a move to Rangers earlier this season.

Walker was replaced in the first-half of Hearts’ 1-0 win over Motherwell on Saturday after sustaining a hamstring strain. He will sit out tonight’s league clash with Dundee at Tynecastle but Levein is hopeful the winger will be available for Sunday’s home game against Celtic.The manager is realistic when pondering whether Walker has a long-term future at the club, with both parties seemingly reconciled to a parting of ways. Players are free to open talks with interested clubs from six months prior to the official end of their contracts. “Contracts in Scotland end in May so Jamie has been eligible, or whatever you want to call it, to speak to clubs since the start of December,” confirmed Levein. “That’s just the way it is. We should be contacted by the club if he is speaking to anybody as a matter of courtesy but it doesn’t always happen.”

Hearts, meanwhile, have held talks with Swedish left-back Gabriel Somi who plays for Ostersunds FK and hope to tempt him to Tynecastle in January.

Hearts winger Jamie Walker. Picture: SNS

But Levein would not comment further on speculation linking Hearts with a move for Niall McGinn after the former Aberdeen winger attended Sunday’s Hibs v Celtic clash as a guest of the Easter Road club.