When Calem Nieuwenhof was taken off in the second half of Heart of Midlothian's win over Celtic back in March, few would have expected such a long lay-off.

The Australian has been a big miss in the Hearts midfield but has dealt with a troublesome hamstring issue for the last eight months. Eight months that have witnessed a setback or two.

Nieuwenhof, alongside Yutaro Oda, have been making steps towards recovery. Both players were on the pitch this week, but it is the Japanese winger who is likely to return first following his hamstring strain.

Neither, however, are expected back prior to the international break.

"I think Calem's going to be a little bit longer just because of the length of time he's been out, so he's going to need a longer period of time with training," Neil Critchley explained. 

"Yutaro because it was only just prior to me arriving, so he's had less time [out]. So we'd expect Yutaro to come back sooner. When that's going to be, we don't know. He went back onto the pitch yesterday, so he's still going to be a couple of weeks away, I think."

In terms of the fixture with Heidenheim in the Conference League, Hearts have no squad issues beyond the two mentioned and Gerald Taylor. Musa Drammeh won't be involved because he is not part of the European squad list.

“No, no-one's due back," Critchley confirmed. "There's been no issues from the weekend. Everyone trained out there today.

"As we were at the weekend, there's been no issues or no injuries from the weekend, so we're fine and we're good to go.”