Craig Gordon injury concern for Hearts and Scotland as Beni Baningime absence explained

The 43-year-old goalkeeper is in contention to start against Japan at Hampden on March 28 and against Ivory Coast at Everton's Hill Dickinson Stadium three days later despite spending most of the season on the Hearts bench.

Gordon has made only three appearances for the Premiership leaders this season, but issued a reminder of his ability with a wonder save to secure a 1-0 win over Dundee last month after stepping off the bench to replace Alexander Schwolow following the German’s red card.

He was also brought in from the cold to start Scotland's World Cup qualifiers against Greece and Denmark in November which secured qualification for the tournament for the first time since 1998 after injury ruled out Angus Gunn.

Gordon, who will become the second-oldest player in World Cup history if he takes part this summer, was posted missing from the Hearts matchday squad for the Premiership match against Falkirk at Tynecastle on Saturday with Ryan Fulton taking his place on the bench.

Manager Derek McInnes confirmed the veteran has a shoulder problem.

"Craig hasn't trained all week," McInnes told BBC Scotland. "He reported a shoulder injury - not the shoulder injury that was causing him problems in pre-season. It's the other shoulder.

“We knew in the early part of the week that he was at risk, and it hasn't really got any better. I'm not sure how quickly that will settle. Hopefully it will settle soon enough and Craig can be considered again next week and then for Scotland games."

Beni Baningime was also ruled out of the game while midfielder Ageu was pulled out of the starting XI after picking up an injury in the warm-up.

"Beni hurt himself in training yesterday," McInnes revealed. "Just an innocuous one where he lost his footing and jarred his knee. We were going to name the team yesterday but we gave him another 24 hours. But unfortunately for us he's failed a fitness test this morning. The physios don't think it's anything too bad. They think it will be fine for next week.”