Why Hearts boss Robbie Neilson couldn’t risk Lawrence Shankland in cup clash vs Celtic
HEARTS manager Robbie Neilson has revealed Lawrence Shankland remains out of his squad for longer than he anticpated.
The striker missed out on the midweek 3-1 defeat to Celtic after picking up a niggling injury.
He was expected to have recovered for today's Scottish Cup Quarter-Final clash with the Hoops at Tynecastle but the forward remains out.
Shankland currently sits second top of the Premiership goal scoring charts behind Kyogo, with 17 goals.
He has been an important part of Neilson's side's push for thrid spot in the league this season.
Speaking after the midweek defeat, Neilson said: "Lawrence Shankland didn’t train today so he’ll be touch and go. We’ll make a game-time decision on him.
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"He’s such an important player for us so he has to be bang on if he’s going to play."
But now the Hearts boss reveals that the Scotland international will be out for longer than he had initially anticipated.
He said: "Disappointed not to have them (Shankland and Snodgrass).
"The plan was at the start of the week that they'd miss the game on Wednesday and both would now be available.
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"But unfortunately they've not quite made it. We felt that it was too much of a risk for the long term than playing them today.
"So we're disappointed but ultimately it gives the other guys a chance to come in.
"We had them missing on Wednesday as we had a number of other players missing and we put on a very good performance so hopefully we can do it again.
"It's part of football, you're going to get injuries so as I said the players that played on Wednesday night done exceptionally well and they have to do the same again today."
Shankland signed for the Edinburgh side in July last year and has made an instant impact, being the first Hearts player since John Robertson in the 1991-92 season to score 20 goals in all competitions.
Robert Snodgrass was signed as a free agent in September last year and has also been important for Hearts, featuring 22 times in all competitions.
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