Miko avoids surgery

Saulius Mikoliunas will be out of action for two months but will not require an operation on his injured knee.

The Lithuania international winger picked up the injury during Hearts' 1-0 victory over St Mirren and initial thoughts were that the 24-year-old would have to go under the surgeon's knife.

However the news is encouraging for Hearts manager Csaba Laszlo, who confirmed that the mercurial midfielder would be closely monitored during his rehabilitation.

"Miko is in a brace at the moment and still in some pain," he said. "But he doesn't need an operation. Hopefully that is good news for us and for Miko.

"The medical team will assess him in three or four weeks and we'll see how he is at that stage. It is still too early to talk about when he might be available for us."