Robbie Neilson reveals details of Hearts' six injuries, admitting: 'I've never been involved in anything like it in 25 years'

The Edinburgh club suffered six injuries while United lost defender Ryan Edwards to a head knock in a physical encounter between two teams pursuing European football.

Gary Mackay-Steven, Cammy Devlin, Alex Cochrane, Nathaniel Atkinson, John Souttar and Josh Ginnelly all sustained different injuries, leaving Neilson to count the cost of the trip to Tayside.

Hearts scored in the opening minute through Liam Boyce but United struck through Liam Smith and a Nicky Clark penalty in the second half. They led 2-1 before Craig Halkett’s late equaliser.

“I’ve never been involved in something like this in my 25 years in football. It was unbelievable,” said Neilson. “We started the game really well and then we got injury after injury after injury.

“We had to take Nat off at half-time and then we lost John Souttar as well. For us to fight back and get a point, I’m delighted. The whole continuity of the team altered.

“Andy Halliday came on, started at right-back then right wing-back, left-back, left wing-back, central midfield. Boycie was the same, moving everywhere. Peter Haring dropped to centre-half.

“Every sub was an injury. Gary came off then we had to put a defender on. It made it difficult but we know how we have to play. We did all right, but not enough to win the game.

“John has a sore ankle. To be honest, I’m not really sure – they were just coming off. Gary hurt his hand, Cochrane is concussion, Devlin was a hamstring. They have a couple of days off so they will be back on Tuesday.

“There were that many changes but we dug out a point. We’ve got seven points from a tough week. Josh got injured as well at the end. It’s one of those days and hopefully we don’t have too many more.

“It’s important to be resilient. Dundee United