With the news Kyosuke Tagawa is heading for the exit door at Tynecastle Park, the obvious question from Heart of Midlothian fans is, 'Will Steven Naismith look to sign a replacement?'

The Japanese striker's return to his homeland to join Kashima Antlers in a deal that will see the club earn a good six-figure fee leaves the forward options as Lawrence Shankland, Kenneth Vargas, Liam Boyce, James Wilson and Musa Drammeh.

Naismith has expressed his desire for the club to have a robust all-year-round recruitment process so that the club are constantly monitoring the market and players they have identified ready to move if or when an opportunity presents itself, like it has with Colombian left-back Andres Salazar.

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As things stand, Hearts don't have any immediate plans to bring in a replacement for Tagawa.

With around three weeks of the transfer window left that could change but Naismith is comfortable with the options he has at his disposal.

"I'm not sitting here with an urgent need to replace him," he said. "We have Shanks, Boycie, Kenneth, James Wilson and Musa can also play up front as well, so we are healthy there.

"This is somebody going out. There is stuff there if we want to do something but there are two or three weeks left. We will have a look and see what or if. It's not something we have a burning desire to go and do."

Explaining the decision to allow Tagawa to leave one year into his three-year deal, the Hearts head coach noted the player's desire to play but that he couldn't guarantee him minutes on the pitch.

"We got an offer that was acceptable," Naismith said. "It wasn't straightforward that we wanted him to go. We had a conversation with him. He's a great person who trains all the time and is really professional. He has got good qualities.

"He suffered minutes-wise last season because of the form of other forwards. When opportunities came - and they were limited - he didn't do enough to force somebody out of the team. I think this suits everybody.

"It was definitely his desire that he wanted more minutes. In all honesty, I couldn't confirm he was going to get that here. That's why this has happened."

Steven Naismith was promoting Premier Sports' live and exclusive coverage of Dundee v Hearts on Saturday. Premier Sports is available to stream from premiersports.com or via your TV provider on Sy, Virgin TV and Amazon Prime as an add-on subscription.