![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0_JS400821423.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe skipper finally returned from a nine-week absence to help Derek McInnes\u2019 side dump Dundee on Saturday<\/p>\n
Lawrence Shankland <\/p>\n
Pumped-up Lawrence Shankland<\/a> says the belief driving Hearts\u2019 title bid helped drag him through the longest injury lay-off of his career.<\/p>\n The skipper finally returned from a nine-week absence to help Derek McInnes\u2019<\/a> side dump Dundee on Saturday and ensure they head into April still top of the table.<\/p>\n Shankland was in top form before being struck down by a hamstring injury midway through January.<\/p>\n But his team mates managed to keep their noses ahead of Celtic<\/a> and Rangers<\/a> in his absence.<\/p>\n And Shankland says the team spirit inside Tynecastle is absolutely massive as they look to produce something magical over the next two months.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cThat nine weeks was probably the longest injury absence I\u2019ve had.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was pretty strange at times but myself and a few injured players were a good group.<\/p>\n \u201cWe rallied round and supported each other and supported the team as well.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the team\u2019s all going in the same direction, everybody believing to try and achieve something, that helps the buy-in.<\/p>\n \u201cUsually you\u2019re sitting on the side hoping they do well but not too good, so that you can get yourself back in. But the feeling was certainly different this time.<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody in the collective was really good in supporting each other and it was good to be a part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n Boss McInnes insists Hearts are only going to get stronger in the business end of this sensational three-way title tussle.<\/p>\n Cammy Devlin joined Shankland in returning from a lengthy lay-off on Saturday and key men Craig Halkett, Stuart Findlay, Harry Milne, Stephen Kingsley and Tomas Magnusson are close to comebacks too. Next up after the international break is a trip to face rock bottom Livingston.<\/p>\n Hearts manager Derek McInnes celebrates (Image: SNS Group)<\/p>\n And Shankland said: \u201cIt\u2019s the same, every time we go out there we try and win our next game.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve done that well through this season and that\u2019s all we need to keep doing, just keep approaching one game at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n Shankland admits he\u2019s watching Hearts\u2019 Old Firm title rivals, and willing them to lose every week.<\/p>\n Asked if he checks out the Glasgow duo on TV hoping for a boost to Hearts\u2019 position, he said: \u201cOf course. You want everybody around you to lose.<\/p>\n \u201cAs long as we keep winning our games we don\u2019t need to concern ourselves \u2013 but come on the other teams.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The skipper finally returned from a nine-week absence to help Derek McInnes\u2019 side dump Dundee on Saturday Lawrence…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490567,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[2817,63797,218,9531,68013,2714,8058,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-490566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-celtic-fc","tag-derek-mcinnes","tag-football","tag-hearts-fc","tag-lawrence-shankland","tag-rangers-fc","tag-scottish-premiership","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490566","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=490566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Hearts](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0_Heart-of-Midlothian-v-Dundee-William-Hill-Premiership.jpg\")
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