DEMI’S AGONY
HEARTS DOUBLE BLOW Knee injury halts loan star Mitchell in his tracks again
BY ALAN TEMPLE DEMETRI MITCHELL faces several months on the sidelines in a second hammer blow to hit Hearts after Sunday’s Scottish Cup stroll.
The 22-year-old left-back suffered suspected knee cartilage damage during the Jambos’ 4-0 victory over Auchinleck Talbot.
Mitchell follows Michael Smith who is set to be out until at least April after tearing his thigh muscle in the cup rout.
Mitchell’s setback came as a bolt from the blue for boss Craig Levein who was informed of the injury by Jambos physio Karen Gibson yesterday morning.
The loan capture will return to parent club Man United this week to discover the severity of the complaint.
But the initial prognosis is he has torn his meniscus tendon – a cruel case of deja vu after suffering an identical injury to the same knee last February.
Nearly 10 weeks passed before he returned for two of Hearts’ final three games.
Levein said: “Demi has a cartilage problem. We suspect it is a tear and he thinks the same thing, having done it before. He did the same knee and same lateral meniscus at the tail end of last season.
“He got back just before the end of last season but I’ll need to speak to Man United now and we’ll find out the extent of it. He didn’t remember doing anything to cause the injury but it must have happened during the game.
“He was good at the weekend.
“He had been suffering from a lack of confidence for a while and had just got that back so it is unfortunate. I feel really sorry for him.”
It’s a sentiment that extends to Smith now his impressive progress has been interrupted.
The 30-year-old will miss next month’s Cup quarter-final at Partick Thistle and would be toiling to make the semi should the Jambos make it through.
The Northern Irishman will also sit out Euro 2020 qualifiers against Estonia and Belarus.
Levein said: “Mick has torn the muscle and damaged a bit of the tendon, which is worse.
“The very best I can hope for is getting him back in six to eight weeks. Eight weeks would be optimistic in all honesty.
“He has played in just about every match and got into the national team as well, so I feel for him because Northern Ireland have games coming up. It happened in a match so there’s nothing you can do about it – you just have to accept it.
“It was innocuous, it happened to his standing leg and was just to do with the way he twisted after a shot.
CRAIG LEVEIN ON CRUEL INJURY TO MITCHELL
“The medical team here have done brilliantly to get other players back so hopefully we can get Michael back fighting fit for the tail end of the season.”
Marcus Godinho will be called upon in Smith’s absence while Jamie Brandon is two or three weeks away following his own cruciate ligament injury. Levein said: “They have both played and played well in the past.”