Hearts’ Stephen Kingsley could miss season after hamstring surgery

Kingsley missed 14 games for Hearts in 2022 with hamstring problems.

“It will be months,” Critchley said of the Scotland capped left-back’s latest injury. “Whether that will be this season or going into next season, it’s too early to say because he still has to have the surgery.

“We will see how that goes but it will be a significant period of time, that’s for sure. It was an area of the pitch we were looking at anyway but with Stephen being out, it’s something now we have to consider.”

Hearts currently sit bottom of the Scottish Premiership table with just 10 points from their opening 15 matches as they prepare to host Dundee on Saturday – but Critchley insists there is no crisis at the club in terms of fearing the drop.

“We are not even halfway through the season and I know you like to use words like ‘crisis’ but I am just focusing on the next game,” he added.

“We joined the club in the last two months, we have had improvements in terms of performances and now we have a period of games where we need to start putting some ‘Ws’ on the board.

“It’s an important period both domestically and in Europe. We have a chance to build and things could look significantly different in a few weeks’ time.”