Hearts are facing a brutal run of fixtures in December after rearrangements as a result of reaching the Betfred Cup semi-finals.
The Jambos face Rangers at Hampden on Sunday 3 November after dispatching Aberdeen on penalties in the quarters.
That means their scheduled meeting with Celtic at Tynecastle has been shifted to 18 December as a result.
Craig Levein’s side now play eight times in four weeks over the course of the festive month. Should they reach the Betfred Cup final, that will take place the second weekend in December and will mean another league match needs to be moved.
Their trip to Ibrox at the start of the month had already been moved to the Sunday due to Rangers’ involvement in the Europa League group stages.
They then hosts Livingston three days later before traveling to Motherwell.
A seven day break will then be welcome before S Johnstone come to Gorgie prior to the rearranged Celtic fixture.
Hamilton away is the last match before Christmas, then it’s in to the Edinburgh derby on boxing day before ending 2019 with a home game against Aberdeen on the 29.
The one bonus is five home matches out of those eight, so could be seen as a change to pick up a good haul of points before the winter break in January.
However, with such an intense run of games in such a short time, coupled with Hearts’ injury record over the last year, there is a risk that Hearts could end up having to use the January fortnight to try and get players back to fitness.
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