Hearts defender Robbie Neilson is seeing a specialist in London today in an attempt to get to the bottom of the achilles injury that has so far prevented him from playing this season.
Neilson, the club’s longest-serving player who was awarded a testimonial last season, has long been the subject of much debate among the Tynecastle faithful, whose opinion of the right-back’s abilities has always been split. There are those who feel that he is and never will be good enough to help take Hearts to a position where they’re continually challenging the Old Firm, but on the other hand there are others who will argue that he’s as solid and dependable a full-back as you’re going to get in Scotland. There aren’t many who sit on the fence in this argument either – you’re either for and against Robbie it seems!
For the most part I’ve tended to be in the former camp, but I have to say that I think the team have been weaker without him so far this season. Jason Thomson has not impressed sufficiently enough to suggest that he’s the long-term ‘answer’ in that role, and in fact I’d go as far as to say that he’s resembled a ‘poor man’s Neilson’ in many respects – his running style and one-pacedness (good word?!) are very reminiscent, but he sadly lacks the long throw that Robbie is renowned for. Perhaps only his distribution has been better, although that is very much up for question.
So perhaps a return to the Hearts first team for Robbie sometime soon wouldn’t be the worst news in the world. Here’s what he told the club’s official website about his current situation:
‘It’s not been much fun over the past few weeks. I got over the stomach problem (which he had at the tail end of last season) but then the Achilles flared up.
‘Hopefully I’m over the worst of it and with a bit of luck after the trip to London I can start looking at getting back into full training in the not too distant future.’
All the best to Robbie in his recovery…..
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Agreed. Best of luck, “The Tackle”.
I would certainly wish Neilson a speedy recovery as we need the competition for places and in general I’m in the latter of the 2 camps mentioned in the article. I wasn’t that impressed with Thomson when he got a game last season but I think he’s been OK this year (on the merit of the 1 game I’ve seen admittedly).
For what it’s worth I actually agree (very controversially!) with the guy on JKB who said he’d prefer Maybury back for a season or two…unless of course Csaba can find another right back altogether. Neilson is steady enough for now I suppose though, especially given that our sights are much lower than where Burley was here.
Good luck to Robbie – let’s hope he gets the all-clear. However I’m more willing to give young Jason much more time to develop before passing judgement on him – I think he’s done quite well so far. Let’s face it – in the modern game very few teams have a traditional left-winger, so the role of a right-back is no longer the same as it was when Walter Kidd played. Both Jason and Robbie are quite good coming forward when they have the ball – but as you say, passing and crossing are poor. As for Robbie’s long throw, it is impressive, but I can’t remember the last time anything actually resulted from it !!
The throw’s as good a defensive tool as it is attacking though – can really dig us out of holes at times when we’re deep in our own half.
Good point, Mr H !!