Hearts made their way to Turkey for their latest Conference League clash.
Hearts left-back Harry Milne could miss the rest of the season after their 2-0 Conference League loss to Trabzonspor came with increased injury woe.
Mohamed Salah opened the scoring for the Super Lig hosts before Franculino’s winner, a week on from the Tynecastle side’s league phase opener, a draw at home with Nordsjaelland. Milne has been a key player for Hearts when fit but returns to Edinburgh in a protective boot and crutches ahead of a Friday scan on a knee injury. Right-back Christian Borchgrevink also exited the game with a muscle problem, but it is believed that Milne will miss several months, and may not play again until next season.
Head coach Wouter Vrancken said: “It was Christian’s hamstring. So, like he said himself: when it rains, it pours. It is a bit like this at this moment. We have to manage it properly and try to get the best out of everybody. Like Borchgrevink, when it rains, it pours. Harry was unlucky because there was no fatigue since he didn't play in the last game. It was not a contact, not a duel, not a crazy move or something. He injured his knee, so we have to see what the scans will say.”
What happened during Trabzonspor vs Hearts?
Vrancken deployed forward Rogers Mato at left-back and full-back Jordi Altena in midfield as part of a makeshift starting XI. Milne suffered his injury during Wednesday’s pre-match training session with Hearts also missing Laurent Mendy, Oisin McEntee and Stuart Findlay, while Stephen Kingsley was benched amid load management. Craig Halkett, Blair Spittal, Ageu and Tom Renaud were also notable absentees.
They held out in admirable fashion for the first half-hour, surviving a couple of penalty shouts for the hosts, Malachi Fagan-Walcott also heading onto the post in one Hearts attack. Tomas Magnusson’s challenge in the box though on Franculino allowed Trabzonspor’s talisman to dispatch coolly from 12 yards. Borchgrevink pulled up with a muscle injury before half-time to add to Hearts’ defensive fitness worries, just days removed from a 7-1 hammering off Celtic in the Premiership.
Striker Franculino then got on the scoresheet himself after linking with Salah before firing into the bottom corner. It was a much improved performance from their loss in Glasgow’s east-end but the injury concerns are rising ahead of Sunday’s return to league action versus Motherwell at Fir Park.
Wouter Vrancken on Trabzonspor 2-0 Hearts
Vrancken added: “Against a good team like this, as I told you already, they paid so much money for new players and even got Salah on a free transfer, so they have a lot of quality in their team, individual quality.
"But what we showed against this individual quality was a real team today. I was really proud of the performance. When you see some guys playing out of position because the need was there, we had only one midfielder left to play, six injured.
"So also there, Jordi Altena, his performance out of position was also great. So happy to see those things happening and that we can bounce back from the result of last weekend and have a good team performance. I just talked with Rogers today, actually, because Harry dropped out yesterday. So I talked with him today, but he was really clean and clear in his conversation No problem, he said, and I told him a bit about his position, about also guarding Salah. Happy to see that it worked out, because if Salah scores two, three times, everybody says it was a wrong decision and not a good one, but yeah, you have to have confidence in some guys.”
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