Craig Halkett thought his Scottish Cup dream was dead a month ago - now he’s eyeing up a chance to join the list of Hearts immortals by dumping Rangers at Hampden.
The defender has made a remarkable recovery from an ankle injury picked up in the semi-final victory over Hibs four weeks ago.
Halkett admits the pain convinced him he had no chance of featuring in Saturday’s showpiece.
But after a rapid recovery and 15 minute cameo off the bench in last weekend’s dress rehearsal against the Ibrox side Halkett is raring to go.
And he knows Robbie Neilson ’s side stand just 90 minutes from legend status.
He said of his injury: “I was in so much pain at that point, I thought there was no chance.
“Fortunately, after speaking to doctors, physios, and going for a scan, we realised there was a small chance I could get back to it.
“I was delighted to get on against Rangers at Tynecastle, it’s obviously been a tough two or three weeks since I picked up the injury.
“I seriously thought my season was over so to be able to get back out there and look towards Saturday has been really good.
“Being at Hearts, you hear the stories of past teams that won the cup. Even to this day, they still get talked about.
“They’re legends that have written their names into the history of this football club.
“The chance for this group to achieve that is massive. For every Hearts fan, it’s all they want this season. We’ve had a great campaign but all our focus is now on this one game.
“It’s in our hands now to take it from a good season to a great one.”
Halkett was part of the Jambos side who lost on penalty kicks to Celtic in the 2020 final.
But he said: “You naturally tend to think back to our last Scottish Cup final; it was the middle of the pandemic and there were no fans there.
“Contrast it to the crowd we took to the game against Hibs, it was huge.
“To have that kind of backing in a Scottish Cup final will be massive."
