Stephen Kingsley sends Hibs warning as he insists Hearts injury woes won't derail derby double header

Stephen Kingsley is warning Hibs that Hearts’ injury troubles will have no bearing on their prospects in the Edinburgh derby double-header.

The Jambos could name only five outfield substitutes against Ross County and were fortunate to leave Dingwall with a point.

Left-back Kingsley – deputising as a centre- half – knows resources are stretched to the limits, with Beni Baningime the latest casualty out for the season with knee damage.

Also sidelined for the early part of this month at least are Michael Smith, Cammy Devlin and John Souttar, while Gary Mackay-Steven and Nathaniel Atkinson were also missing on Saturday.

Kingsley, though, is confident that the strain on the squad won’t be a factor when it comes to the two massive encounters with Hibs in the league and the Scottish Cup.

The former Swansea and Hull City man said: “We’ve got loads to work on but we’ll do that before next weekend.

“We have two huge games coming up but it was all about the Ross County game and trying to get the three points.

“We’re in a good place and we are confident within ourselves and our game.

“We’ve got a lot of injuries just now but I don’t feel they hamper our confidence.

“We still try to play the right way and we still have players who can hurt other teams, strong players.”

Hearts defender Kingsley seemed content with a single point against County.

He added: “For the neutral it was probably a brilliant game to watch but it was one of those crazy matches where we could have won 4-0 or they could have won 4-0. It was so bizarre.

“Thankfully, Craig Gordon made a couple of incredible saves to keep us in it and we were unlucky we didn’t take some of the chances. However, a draw was probably the right result.”