Alex Cochrane has swapped Heart of Midlothian for Birmingham City after the left-back’s transfer to the English League One club was finalised.

The 24-year-old Englishman has signed a four-year deal at St Andrew's in a deal which is said to be worth in excess of £1million for the Gorgie club.

Cochrane, who came through the youth system at Brighton and Hove Albion, initially joined Hearts on a season-long loan in the 2021/22 campaign before making his move permanent the following summer by putting pen to paper on a three-year contract at Tynecastle Park.

The defender entered the final year of his contract this summer, meaning he would have been able to move on for free at the end of the season, and so Hearts decided to cash in on their asset before the new Scottish Premiership campaign begins.

“Alex has done really well for us since joining three years ago, and we’ve been really good for Alex so it’s no surprise that there was interest in him," Steven Naismith told the club's website.

“We had a conversation a year ago about picking the right moment to move on, and how another good season at Hearts would benefit him. He’s shown a maturity to focus on his game, develop and do his best for the team.

“It’s important for the club that we are able to identify players who can take the team forward and, if the opportunity presents itself further down the line, we make a significant return on our investment.

“It’s one of the big appeals for players joining Hearts; challenging at the top end of the league and in latter stages of the cup, European football, international recognition and a platform to progress careers.

“It’s a good deal all round. It’s good for the club and it’s good for Alex. He leaves with our best wishes.”

Cochrane joins a Birmingham City side who will be looking to return to the second tier of English football as quickly as possible.

"It came about quite quickly, but I felt like it was too good an opportunity to pass on," he told the Birmingham website. "The ambition of the club is really exciting, especially for a young player like me who wants to go as far as I can in football.

"I am delighted to be here, and I just cannot wait to get going."

Cochrane’s departure means that Steven Naismith has lost his first-choice left-back from last season, but the arrival of James Penrice from Livingston would appear to fill that gap in the squad. Speaking in the aftermath of the 2-1 friendly defeat to Leyton Orient, the Hearts head coach seemed to pour cold water on the notion that Hearts would have to enter the market to find a like-for-like replacement for Cochrane.

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“We are not going to drastically run in and do anything,” Naismith explained. “We will look at the squad but we have got players who can play there – [Stephen] Kingsley, Penrice, Kye Rowles can play there as well. 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.”