HEARTS have been hit with a huge double injury blow ahead of facing Rangers this weekend.
Record £1.7million signing Eduardo Ageu and influential defender Frankie Kent are both out of the trip to Ibrox.
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Brazilian midfielder Ageu, who McInnes called a “Rolls-Royce”, is likely to be out for weeks with a hamstring injury.
While Kent was sent for a scan on his knee on Tuesday after limping out of training.
Boss Derek McInnes said: “Ageu, our new signing, has got a bit of a hamstring issue.
“He’ll miss Saturday and he might miss the next two or three games.
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“Last Monday, he trained but halfway through the session he said he felt a bit of tightness and we took him out of it.
“He then saw the medical team, did all his strength tests and was absolutely fine.
“He wanted to train Tuesday, but he only gave it ten or 15 minutes and said he was aware of something tight again.
“So with the free week, we didn’t want to take any chances.
“Instead of putting that extra bit of work into him we were unable to, then we decided to scan him just to see what we were dealing with.
“It’s not ideal, but we need to live with it and there’ll be plenty opportunities during the season for him to have an impact on the team.
“But unfortunately for us, it won’t be this weekend.
“The only positive is that the games are a bit spread out over the next few weeks.
“He’ll miss the next two anyway, then we’ll wait and see for the Hibs game.
“Frankie Kent hurt his knee in training, so he’s away for a scan.
“He left here in a boot so I don’t want to speculate about it.
“I’m hoping that it’s just cartilage, but we’ll see how it plays out. But obviously he is out of Saturday.”
McInnes has had Scotland goalkeeper Craig Gordon back involved in recent days so could push him towards returning to the squad in the coming weeks.
He said: “We’ve had Craig training, stepping up his work. He’s been out a long time.
“He has been doing a bit more than we anticipated in the last ten days or so.
“So he’s coming from a long way back in terms of the pre-season. But he’s trained well.
“I’ll have a chat with Craig and see if this weekend comes too quick or not.”
McInnes, whose side could go nine points ahead of Rangers with a win at Ibrox, admits he’s getting closer to playing the likes of new signing Alexandros Kyziridis from the start.
The Greek winger, 24, has made a major impact from the bench so far — as has striker Claudio Braga — and the next stage of development in Scottish football is kicking games off.
On Kyziridis, McInnes said: “He’s been a supersub, hasn’t he? He was outstanding at Livingston as the whole team were in the second half.
“He carried the fight, carried the threat, and it was quite fitting that he scored the winning goal.
“I like to mark my players and my subs’ impact.
“It is a different league, but we knew that when we signed them. The expectation is for all players to adapt quickly.
“We don’t have the luxury in our game to be too understanding of that.
“It’s like ‘come on this is the league and this is how you need to play in it’.
“For the vast majority, it’s been absolutely fine although I do think it’s been a wee bit of an eye-opener for one or two.
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“But they’ve had a good look at it now, they see how we train. We try to be competitive in our training and there’s not a lot of time to wait.
“Sometimes you’ve got to factor in loads.”
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