Craig Levein: Hearts teenagers 'not ready' for first team action

Craig Levein insists his youngsters are not ready'' and remains reluctant to play them despite further injuries to his Hearts squad.

The Jambos' season has been besieged by a number of injuries to key players, with Arnaud Djoum the latest to succumb.

The midfielder limped off during the midweek win over Dundee at Tynecastle, and could miss up to four matches, joining players such as Jamie Walker and Aaron Hughes on the sidelines.

Arnaud got a kick in his Achilles on Tuesday and will miss out until the winter break by the looks of things,'' Levein said ahead of his side's clash with Celtic this weekend.There is a bit of damage to the Achilles tendon.

Jamie Walker is better but not ready for Sunday, and Aaron Hughes is better but not ready for Sunday either.''

That leaves Levein with no choice but to pitch his impressive youngsters into the side to face Brendan Rodgers' Hoops.

Sixteen-year-old Anthony McDonald was the latest to take his chance by setting up two goals in the win on Tuesday night, joining another 16-year-old, Harry Cochrane, in the team along with 19-year-old Lewis Moore.

Despite widespread praise for the teenagers, Levein would rather not be relying on them and admits their chance has come slightly earlier than anticipated.

He said: It's a bit of a risk right now; they're not ready and I think you can see that.

The only one who has looked physically ready is (17-year-old winger) Euan Henderson, but he's a different build and is a lot stronger from his rugby background.

The others are all fairly slight and, looking at them, you would think a strong wind would blow them over.

The mentality is good and strong though and football-wise they are capable of competing. They have done better than I would have expected and that's a great credit.''

He added: We have had a spell of injuries to our better players for what seems like months now, so I haven't had a lot of choice (but to play them).

The pleasing thing for me is that they have all come in at different points and contributed. That augurs well for the future but they are still two or three years away from what I would consider to be first-team players here.

I'd rather have Arnaud Djoum and Jamie Walker available, but if they're not then I've not got a lot of options.

Whether they're 100 per cent ready to play against Scott Brown and Stuart Armstrong, time will tell, but they were both young kids at one time as well and everyone has to start somewhere.

The rise has been accelerated through injuries and also by them training really well and contributing to the team.'