Hearts are preparing for more injury woe this week as they await scans on defenders Harry Milne and Christian Borchgrevink. With eight first-team players currently sidelined, the Edinburgh club do not have their fitness issues to seek. They may need to wait another month to have midfielder Oisin McEntee available again and are determined not to rush players back to ease the injury crisis.

Milne damaged his knee last Wednesday during a pre-match training session for the UEFA Conference League tie in Turkiye against Trabzonspor. He left the country in a protective brace and on crutches, and is due to be scanned back in Edinburgh. That has been delayed while swelling reduces but should be done this week. Hearts expect the left-back to miss months of football and are preparing to be told he won’t play again until next season.

Borchgrevink hurt his hamstring and was forced off during the Trabzonspor match last Thursday evening. He is also waiting to have the injury scanned to determine the full extent and recovery time. The right-back is not expected to be absent for anywhere near as long as Milne. However, his injury comes at an inopportune time with so many Hearts midfielders and defenders sidelined.

McEntee missed a month of football last month because of a calf complaint and has now aggravated a muscle in a similar area. He was withdrawn at half-time during last Sunday’s 7-1 defeat against Celtic. Hearts believe he could be missing until after next month’s international break. The versatile Irishman has joined team-mates Stuart Findlay, Craig Halkett, Eduardo Ageu, Tom Renaud and Blair Spittal on the club’s injury list.

Head coach Wouter Vrancken explained the situation with McEntee to the Edinburgh News. “Oisin is not back yet. Hopefully, it's a fast recovery,” said the Belgian. “It will be in the direction of the international break. After that, hopefully he can come back. As always with muscle injuries, it's difficult to say when. You never know when there is a setback. It's always week-by-week or day-by-day sometimes.”

Vrancken is anticipating confirmation of Milne’s absence time this week. Hearts beat Motherwell 2-0 at Fir Park on Sunday and face Rangers at Tynecastle Park on Wednesday. Vrancken expects that only Findlay could be available for the midweek match out of his injured players. “After the weekend, we'll do the scan for Harry. We knew that it was not possible to recover him for Sunday. It's no use to do the scan too early so we want to have a proper scan after the weekend.

“Borch also didn't have the scan yet for the same reason as Harry, actually. We were sure that he wasn't playing at Motherwell. Then it's better that we do the scan a bit later so that all the fluids and blood around the injury are gone, then the image of the scan is more clear.”

Spittal, Renaud and Halkett are long-term injury absentees who may return around the December/January period. Ageu is another with a muscle problem but he is back working on the Riccarton training pitches. Like others, he will be given time to recover following relentless injury issues since arriving in Edinburgh as Hearts’ record signing in August 2025.

“He’s on the pitch doing individual stuff but it’s difficult to say when he will be able to participate,” stated Vrancken after the Motherwell match.” When asked if he will have any of injured players available to face Rangers, the Belgian was not overly confident. “I don’t think so. We’ll see. Maybe Stu. Depending on his progress day by day. We take our care and rest.”