Robbie Neilson is looking forward to welcoming back three key players as he bids to lead Hearts out of their slump.

Craig Gordon and Liam Boyce will be available for Saturday’s trip to St Mirren after sitting out last weekend’s defeat at St Johnstone due to Covid, while influential defender Craig Halkett is back after missing the last six matches with a hamstring injury.

“It’s good to have both Craigs back,” he said. “We’ve missed the two of them and they’re two key players for us, so I’m pleased to get them back in.

“Boycie should be back as well. Again, it’s another one of our senior players. We’ve missed a number of them in recent weeks, including Michael Smith as well. With the size of squad we’ve got that can make quite a difference so getting them back will be great.”

Halkett was one of Hearts’ top performers in the first half of the season as they surged clear in third place, but his absence from the team has coincided with a run in which they have won just one of their last six games in normal time in all competitions and lost each of their last three league matches.

“I think we’ve missed Craig,” said Neilson. “He’s been really good for us this season. With the form he was in, we were speaking to him about trying to get round about the Scotland set-up.

“He was starting to get there but this injury came at a difficult time for him and us. I’m delighted to get him back and hopefully he can start proving his worth again.”

Neilson has come under fire from sections of the Hearts support in the wake of their recent form, but he is confident his team – nine points clear of the chasing pack – are equipped to get back on track and reassert themselves in the battle for third place.

“If you’re winning games then everything’s great,” he said. “As soon as you lose a couple of games then you have to take the pressure that comes with that. That’s part and parcel of playing at a bigger club.

“I’ve been at clubs before where you can lose two or three on the bounce and nobody cares, and you’d rather be in a situation, like we are here at a big club, where you’re expected to win.

“We’ve been creating chances and we haven’t been taking them. We’ve probably been a wee bit too negative in our play. We’ve had a lot of possession, but it’s what we do in that final moment that we’ve not taken.“You go through periods in the season (like that). It happens every season. We had eight games in 26 days and felt a wee bit fatigued and hoped that the break would get us back going again. “We’ve now got an opportunity to go on another run. We had a great start to the season, a great middle period, we’ve had a wee difficult period now. If we can win two, three, four on the bounce, we can take the next step again.”