Hearts striker suffered a cruciate injury during the win over St Johnstone; Liam Boyce was the club's top goalscorer last season; Robbie Neilson admits Hearts may be "more aggressive" in the final days of the transfer window due to injuries
Tuesday 30 August 2022 15:58, UK
Hearts may be without Liam Boyce for the rest of the season after the striker ruptured his cruciate ligament during Sunday's 3-2 win over St Johnstone.
The Northern Irishman - who scored before going down in considerable pain in the first half at Tynecastle - was stretchered off due to the injury.
Summer signing Lawrence Shankland will now lead the line for Hearts in place of Boyce, who was the club's top goalscorer last season with 16 goals across all competitions.
However, with the Jambos also losing Kye Rowles due to a metatarsal injury, head coach Robbie Neilson is expected to make further additions to his squad before the transfer window shuts.
"It will be extremely difficult to replace Liam because he was our top scorer last season and is a key part of the squad but we have to try and do that," said Neilson.
"It's going to be tough. I'm very disappointed for Liam personally because he's been exceptional since I came back to the club but we just have to get someone in that's going to take that mantle.
"Kye is going to be out for six to eight weeks. He should be back in time to get a number of games in before the World Cup and I would expect him still to be in the squad because he's done extremely well for Australia and he's also done extremely well for us. Hopefully he'll only be out for six weeks.
"We've had a lot of dialogue over the last few weeks (about recruitment) but we spoke again yesterday and had a discussion about what we need to bring in.
"The injuries mean we maybe have to be a bit more aggressive in the market but we want quality, not quantity.
"It depends what's available. We'd like to bring permanent signings in but at this stage of the window it's looking less likely, so it will probably be loan deals. We'll see what comes up in the next couple of days."
Who will be on the move this summer before the transfer window closes at midnight in Scotland on September 1?
Keep up-to-date with all the latest transfer news and rumours in our dedicated Transfer Centre blog on Sky Sports' digital platforms. You can also catch up with the ins, outs and analysis on Sky Sports News.
