Lawrence Shankland Hearts fitness latest as Steven Naismith issues triple update

Steven Naismith is confident Hearts will be boosted by the returns of their three key players ahead of Saturday’s clash with Livingston.

The Jambos were without top scorer Lawrence Shankland and playmaker Beni Baningime in the weekend’s 2-1 win at St Mirren. Calem Nieuwenhof has also been sidelined for the past month with a hamstring issue and while Naismith was hugely impressed with his stand-ins in Paisley, the Tynecastle boss expects to welcome back his trio.

He said: “They will all be back hopefully. But we were missing three of our most consistent players of the season on Saturday and still won. That’s brilliant. It tells me we have a togetherness and hunger for individuals to seize the opportunity they get.

“If it comes, they need to take it and they did. We now have a home game against Livingston to finish before the split. We will go into it confident and consistency is key. These are the games we need to win.”

A win for the Gorgie side would edge them closer to a guaranteed third-place finish as Kilmarnock trail 11 points behind with just five league games to go post-split.