Hearts suffer hammer injury blow as key man to miss Celtic, Hibs and Rangers clashes

Devlin has been an ever-present for Hearts this season in their surge to the top of the Premiership. The Australian, however, hurt his leg in a collision with Killian Phillips during Wednesday night’s 2-0 win over St Mirren and medical examinations have now revealed the extent of his injury.

It is estimated that Devlin will be out for between six-to-eight weeks, depending on the rate of his recovery. His absence is exacerbated by fellow midfielder Beni Baningime’s two-match league ban, which means Hearts will be without their first-choice central midfielders for their two remaining league games in January against Celtic and Dundee United.

Devlin was due to miss Saturday’s Scottish Cup fourth round tie against Falkirk at Tynecastle in any case due to ban for that specific competition, but his absence at a crucial point of the league campaign will be of concern to head coach Derek McInnes.

Hearts are six points clear of Celtic and Rangers but welcome the champions to Gorgie next weekend and face Rangers at Ibrox in mid-February. They also have an Edinburgh derby against Hibs on February 11 amid a hectic run of fixtures. Devlin is not anticipated to be back until the start of March at the earliest and will miss those games.

McInnes’ options to replace Devlin are limited. Defensive midfielder Oisin McEntee is also injured and isn’t slated to return until next month, while Calem Nieuwenhof and Ageu also remain on the sidelines. Tomas Magnusson and Blair Spittal are more attack-minded midfielders and Hearts may re-assess their transfer options now that the timescale for Devlin has been revealed.

Hearts have already signed two players in the January transfer window - right-back Jordi Altena and winger Islam Chesnokov - while they hope to convert Rogers Mato’s pre-contract agreement for the summer into a permanent transfer before the winter window closes on February 2.