Hearts manager Craig Levein has hailed captain Christophe Berra’s willingness to sacrifice himself for the team after admitting that the Scotland defender is set to take a injection to play in tonight’s derby.
The 33-year-old is making good progress in his recovery from a head knock sustained in last weekend’s Scottish Cup defeat to Motherwell but has been struggling with a persistent ankle problem.
Levein, who admitted that winger David Milinkovic is set to miss out with a knee problem – while centre-half John Souttar is a doubt with a hamstring strain, said: “I’m actually more worried about his ankle rather than his head knock because everything has gone to plan for that.
“He will need to get another injection to play. He’s just different isn’t he? It was him that suggested getting an injection and really it’s just to numb the pain.
“At some point he will need to get it scanned and have a little rest.
“It’s changed days, when I played out there against Hibs I had been out for four months with an ankle injury and I had four injections in my ankle.
“You played with problems, it did show the willingness to go that little bit extra to play and that’s something we’re seeing less and less off.
“Christophe is a really good example of what I would call an old-fashioned professional footballer and there’s not many of them left.”
