12 September 2006, by Sean Gillen

Goncalves on the road to recovery

Portuguese defender eyes October comeback for Hearts

Hearts manager Valdas Ivanauskas has revealed that he does not expect Portuguese defender Jose Goncalves to return to action for the Scottish side for at least another month.

The Switzerland-raised Portuguese under-21 international has been struggling with a hip injury, meaning he is yet to feature for the Jambos this season, and Ivanauskas does not expect the January signing from FC Thun to return until next month.

“Jose is looking not bad,” Ivanauskas told the Edinburgh Evening News.

“He is due back from Switzerland over the weekend and will be back with us from next week. He will need a lot of time to recover properly but he is looking not so bad.”

“At first he will be running and doing light jogging and the aim is for him to perhaps be ready to do full training by the end of the month.”

“I expect it will be well into October before he can play again.”

Hearts suffered a disappointing 1-0 home defeat to St Mirren on Saturday, a result which sees them third in the Scottish Premier League, three points behind champions Celtic.

The Edinburgh side host Czech outfit Sparta Prague at Tynecastle in the UEFA Cup on Thursday.