Heart of Midlothian have accepted an offer from English League One side Birmingham City for defender Alex Cochrane.

The English left-back was not in the squad to face Leyton Orient in Saturday's friendly. He watched from behind the dugout as Hearts lost 2-1.

Cochrane is into the final year of his deal at Hearts and has attracted strong interest from England. The club have received an offer they feel is value for money, believed to be worth more than £1million with a sell-on clause expected to be part of the deal.

Steven Naismith said: "The club have accepted a bid so that is something that will probably move quite quickly in the next three or four days.

"For us as a club, it’s an example of us finding a talent, who is a good player but who also has a drive to get as high as he can and maximise what he can do in the game. Over the last three or four years he has worked really hard at that.

"With a year left on his contract it is a good deal for the club."

After three seasons with the club, the first being on loan, Cochrane is keen to return to England to continue his development. Hearts turn a profit on a player they signed for a six-figure fee.

"It’s one that Alex wants to take and I think that everybody comes out of it well," Naismith said. "We have progressed a player and made a profit on him, and he is moving to a big club and it is one he wants to be at.

I think that’s just the business side of football and that’s the way it has got to be. Under certain circumstance, you need to sit and weigh up what the benefit is for the club, but as a club you need to produce players.

"You need to identify ones to bring to the club to make better and sell them on. That’s a good business model and something the club haven’t done well enough over the years. It’s football."

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Naismith was asked if there were plans to replace Cocrhane but the Hearts head coach said they are "not going to drastically run in and do anything".

"We will look at the squad but we have got players who can play there – Kingsley, Penrice, Kye Rowles can play there as well," he explained. "So we have got cover.

"Over the course of the next month or so we will see exactly where we are sitting in terms of the squad and where everybody is at. But that is something I identified last year – we don’t want to be that club. We did have to in January because we needed a right-back but we don’t want to have to panic and make a big call on a player that we are maybe not sure on.

"With the way we set up, we are comfortable with the way we look just now."