MARK DE VRIES will go straight from a private hospital bed to Edinburgh airport this morning to join Hearts' flight to Rotterdam for the match against Feyenoord.
Craig Levein seems certain to have the striker fit after successful treatment on an infected toe and his appearance in the side will be a big bonus.
''Mark has been taking antibiotics for the swelling, which makes it difficult and painful for him to get his boot on,'' said Levein.
''As a team, we realise the
difficulty of the game we are facing and if we lose we
certainly won't lose because of lack of effort or preparation.
''We have done our homework on Feyenoord and nobody at our club is thinking we can't beat them or has any negative thoughts.
''We will be doing everything we can to come away with say a point and we have shown we can play well away from home in Europe. We know it is a
difficult match but we will show no fear.''
Any hope Hearts have of springing a surprise against Feyenoord will rest mainly on whether de Vries can play to his full potential.
The towering Dutch striker spent Monday and Tuesday night in hospital wired to a drip in a bid to stop the swelling.
De Vries has been dogged by injury all season and needed to take a pain-killing injection on another foot problem before last month's second leg
first-round game with Braga in Portugal, a game in which he scored twice to help the Tynecastle club into the
lucrative group stages of the UEFA Cup.
Levein made it clear that de Vries wants to play, especially after missing the Celtic game at the weekend. ''He is Dutch and he feels he didn't quite fulfil his potential in his homeland,'' said Levein. ''He wants to go back and show them just how good a player he is.''
Assuming de Vries makes it, he will be deployed as a sole striker, although if the game is getting away from them, Levein will have no alternative but to put on other strikers such as Kevin McKenna, Graham Weir or possibly even Ramon Pereira, who is still struggling with an ankle injury.
''They aren't the biggest at the back and they are not the best in the air so to that extent Mark would be very beneficial to us,'' said the Hearts coach. ''If we could get anything out of the game it would be a massive achievement for us.
''It is probably the best quality team we have played against in a European sense, but we are not going in with any fear.''
Meanwhile, Levein's assistant, Peter Houston, has come back from a spying trip to Hungary saying Ferencvaros, who Hearts play in their final group game, remind him of Hibs.
''[The game] was a local derby, played out very much like a Hearts-Hibs game,'' he said. ''I would absolutely love to go into the final game of the group stage with the opportunity of going through. If that were the case, I would strongly fancy our chances.''
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