By 11pm on Friday night, Heart of Midlothian will have submitted their squad list to UEFA for the Europa League play-off round tie with Viktoria Plzen.

Hearts will take on the Czech side over two legs for a place in the newly formatted tournament which sees a league phase replace the group stage.

Due to conditions placed on the squad list by UEFA, Steven Naismith will have to leave first-team players out for the two upcoming fixtures. 

Teams are allowed to submit squads of 25. Of those, at least four have to be club-trained but of the first-team players over the age of 21 only Craig Gordon fits the club-trained criteria meaning Hearts' Euro squad could be limited to 22.

Naismith admitted this squad selection "is pretty straightforward" due to injuries to Beni Baningime and Calem Nieuwenhof and it has been decided that new signing Andres Salazar won't be included.

"Obviously no matter what happens where you are in the next round, there's another squad list to go in but we'll look at that nearer the time," he said.

"I'm somebody who does like to plan but if you plan too far ahead there are always changes, I've learned that in the last year. We'll see where we sit injury-wise and form before we pick the group stage one."

He added: "Salazar won't be in it. Just with the travel and stuff, he'll not be in. Beni and Calem are not really going to feature before then so they are the other ones who will miss out as well."

Despite an injury to his toe, Kent is set to be included but it is too early to make a judgement on whether or not he will be fit to face Plzen in the Doosan Arena next week.

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"Hopefully," Naismith said. "It's like with any infection, how long it takes to go away, that's it. It's been like that for a fair few days so we're hoping that the medication he's on has kicked right in and it has improved most days.

"It's just that fine balance so that's why he misses out tomorrow."

While Salazar won't be involved in the two play-off games, Naismith confirmed he is fit and ready to play despite not featuring in a match since April.

"When we think it's right there's nothing that I need to think or I need to check he's alright or that," the Hearts head coach said when asked if he needed to see anything from the Colombian before he would be involved.

"The more we work with him day-to-day you tend to find what a player's tendencies are. Whether it's dropping off the pitch when you're a defender or whether it's jumping out of position. You'll find these tendencies out but there's nothing that's going to stop us from saying we can't play him as of yet.

"He's coming in to be ready to play from tomorrow."

Hearts will be getting a full-back who has earned a Colombia cap already in his young career, as well as experiencing top-flight football in his homeland and in the Copa Libertadores.

Naismith outlined what the club's fans can expect from the 21-year-old.

"His general technique as a player is really good," he said. "He's really aggressive going forward. He wants to attack. He's comfortable being in the middle of the pitch. Also, in the attacking areas he's got good quality, it's not hopeful quality. Finding a man, whether it be a through ball or a pass or whether he's delivering into the box, is really good.

"On the defensive side of it, he's an aggressive defender. He wants to make contact, he wants to close the space between him and the attacker. He's not happy just to sit off and let the attacker dictate the 1v1 duel. So that's the things that drew us in to start with.

"I think also, as I said before, he wasn't somebody that we thought was going to become available for us. Time will tell how good his qualities are but like I said from the first few days in the building it's been really good."

Meanwhile, Naismith hasn't ruled out further signings this window. Hearts are not desperate to add to the squad but will monitor the transfer market should the right player become available.

There could be further outgoings as the club wait for the right offer to come in for Nathaniel Atkinson.

"I think there's been a couple of discussions but nothing that's led to anything really being serious," Naismuth said. "There's no change there."

Hearts likely European squad: Craig Gordon, Zander Clark, Ryan Fulton, Gerald Taylor, Daniel Oyegoke, Frankie Kent, Craig Halkett, Stephen Kingsley, Kye Rowles, James Penrice, Cammy Devlin, Jorge Grant, Malachi Boateng, Blair Spittal, Yan Dhanda, Barrie McKay, Liam Boyce, Musa Drammeh, Alan Forrest, Yutaro Oda, Kenneth Vargas and Lawrence Shankland.

Due to their age the following can be named on the B list: Macaulay Tait, James Wilson, Finlay Pollock.