{"id":461040,"date":"2026-03-06T16:59:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T16:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/461040\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T16:59:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T16:59:10","slug":"lawrence-shanklands-positive-injury-progress-in-hearts-title-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/461040\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawrence Shankland&#8217;s positive injury progress in Hearts title bid"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n  The striker has been absent since sustaining a hamstring injury in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heartsstandard.co.uk\/topics\/scottish-cup\/?ref=au\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Scottish Cup<\/a> clash with Falkirk in January and the initial timeline was around six to eight weeks.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The 30-year-old has missed the last seven games and Hearts have been working towards him returning for the final fixture before the split against Motherwell.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Shankland, it is understood, is happy with the progress he is making and is working towards returning before the Steelmen come to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heartsstandard.co.uk\/topics\/tynecastle\/?ref=au\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Tynecastle<\/a> Park.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  That could perhaps be as early as this month when Hearts host Dundee, but as things stand, it is too early to predict with any certainty.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Hearts have a two-week break following the game with Dundee on March 21 for the international break before they return with a visit to bottom-place Livingston.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Should his recovery progress continue positively, the latest he will return is against Motherwell the week after the Livi fixture.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Hearts will be boosted in the coming weeks by the return of Oisin McEntee and, possibly, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heartsstandard.co.uk\/topics\/cammy-devlin\/?ref=au\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Cammy Devlin<\/a> against Kilmarnock, with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heartsstandard.co.uk\/topics\/stephen-kingsley\/?ref=au\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Stephen Kingsley<\/a> also due to return at some point in the coming weeks.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Speaking last week, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heartsstandard.co.uk\/news\/25239825.derek-mcinnes-news-interviews-updates-manager\/?ref=au\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Derek McInnes<\/a> suggested it would be like another transfer window.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;I do think that once we get through the next four games, we&#8217;re going to be a bit stronger, ideally going into the final run-in, so it will almost feel like a transfer window opening up for us in April when we get a few back,&#8221; he said.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Meanwhile, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heartsstandard.co.uk\/topics\/finlay-pollock\/?ref=au\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Finlay Pollock<\/a> is continuing to make progress in his recovery from a hamstring injury, which he suffered on loan for Raith Rovers last April.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The 21-year-old has been working on the grass recently but has yet to join in with the first-team squad.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  That is expected to happen in the next couple of weeks as Hearts and the player hope to build the player back up following an injury-plagued few years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The striker has been absent since sustaining a hamstring injury in the Scottish Cup clash with Falkirk in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461041,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-461040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-football","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}