Hearts boss Robbie Neilson has provided an injury update on John Souttar, while offering an explanation for his summer setback.
In August the defender underwent surgery after suffering a relapse of the Achilles injury he sustained at the start of the year.
News of the setback had many supporters fearing he'd be facing a lengthy spell on the sidelines.
However, as reported by the Daily Record, two months on Neilson is confident the defender is making good progress – and it set to take the next step in his recovery at the end of this month.
He said: "John’s good actually. He’s still got the boot on but that comes off at the end of this month and he starts building up again.
"We’re just hoping everything will be fine."
Neilson believes the lack of physio work Souttar was able to get during lockdown contributed to the setback.
The Hearts boss added: “We think that having the operation then having lockdown, when he couldn’t get any treatment or any real physio work on it, has hopefully been the issue.
“We’re hoping this time that getting the op then getting physio every day will help him get back to full fitness.”
