Peter Haring’s Hearts injury hell finally ended after 16 months on the sidelines with a substitute appearance in their 3-0 friendly win over Falkirk.
The Austrian hadn’t appeared for the Jambos since taking injections to play in the May 2019 Scottish Cup final defeat to Celtic.
Since then, Haring has had to go under the knife twice as his persistent pelvic problem just wouldn’t go away, robbing both Craig Levein and Daniel Stendel of his much needed services as they battled in vain against the drop.
But he’s now back just in time for Robbie Neilson’s assault on the Championship title after coming off the bench against the Bairns, who were brushed aside thanks to goals from Liam Boyce, Jamie Walker and Craig Wighton.
Haring is hopeful he's back for good this time after detecting a shift in how his body was responding to the recovery process.
He told Hearts TV: “It’s been a wee while since I wore a Hearts jersey!”
“I’m delighted, it wasn’t too long today but I felt decent so I can’t complain.
“I spoke to the gaffer at the start of last week and he asked how I felt about getting some minutes under my belt today. I said as long as everything felt good I was happy to play and I couldn’t wait for today.
“The touch was average but my body feels good so I’m really happy. As far as I know I’ll get some more minutes against Partick at Tynecastle on Saturday so I’m looking forward to that.
“I felt that there was light at the end of the tunnel a while ago because my body started feeling different.
“I’m just happy to get my first minutes and I can’t wait for more to come.”
Skipper Steven Naismith also made his comeback with a first friendly appearance of pre-season and got half-an-hour under his belt and says he’ll be ready for the Betfred Cup group stage game against Inverness on October 6.
“This is the first game, we’ll have another one and the weekend and then we’ll push on with a full week’s training,” he said.
“There probably could be a few games involved in that week as well so I’m raring to go, I feel fit and I’m looking forward to it.”
Naismith has been impressed with new signings Josh Ginnelly, Elliott Frear and Jason Roberts.
He added: “You want to play. You want to play with the new signings and put your stamp on the team.
“Competition for places is high now and we’re raring to go.
“You can tell their football knowledge is good. The positions they’re picking up are all good so it’ll be good to have them in the group.
“We’ve got good forward players like [Jamie] Walker and others and those boys all want to play and get on the ball, which shows they’re confident.”
