Hearts star Neil McCann today vowed to bounce back from his latest injury setback.

The experienced midfielder is to undergo surgery this weekend to remove a plate inserted after the horror leg break he suffered seven months ago against Celtic.

The plate has been causing increasing discomfort over the past few weeks and an operation is now required to resolve the problem.

It means Neil won't feature again during the current campaign, something which is a source of utter frustration for the former Dundee, Rangers and Southampton midfielder, who tore his medial ligament on his first game back for the club from St Mary's.

"It's been a horrible year for me and to be fair it's not gone great since I came back to the club as I've suffered the worst two injuries of my career," he said.

"I now need to get the plate out of my leg as it has been rubbing the soft tissue around it. I've had it for a number of weeks now and it's got to the stage where I can't get by any more so I'm going in this weekend to have it removed. I was hoping to put it off until the end of the season but I need to be realistic. I couldn't be 100 per cent on match days and that wouldn't be fair to the lads.

"The frustrating thing for me is that the bone has healed up fantastically and the surgeon was delighted with that. The ankle is fine as well. Sometimes people don't have any bother with them at all so it's just unfortunate.

"I played 90 minutes of a reserve game the other day and yesterday it was very painful.

"That could be the end of the season for me and it's pretty soul destroying to be honest."

Neil was speaking at Tynecastle at the launch of the 2008 Player of the Year Awards ceremony and the 10th anniversary of the 1998 Scottish Cup win.

Looking back to the moment he suffered the injury, Neil said: "It happened on my first game back this season towards the end of August. I went in for a tackle, I think it was Scott McDonald, and I knew I was going to catch him so decided to stop my momentum as I'd end up hurting him.

"My ankle couldn't take the strain of the tackle and the momentum, though.

"I shattered the fibula, dislocated the ankle and tore the ligament off the inside. I surprised a lot of people, never mind myself, at how quickly I got back, so to have this problem is very bad luck.

"I recovered well from the last one, hope to do the same this time as well. Maybe I'll be back training by the end of the season and taking part in full contact training then as well.

"If not, I'll be doing my own training and come pre-season I'll be all guns blazing again."

As to his predictions for the club's Player of the Year, Neil thinks there are a few worthy contenders.

"Christophe Berra has come on leaps and bounds," he said.

"To be given the captaincy at such a young age put a lot of pressure on his shoulders and he has dealt with it really well and been a strong performer for us.

"Ruben has also done well since signing for us, while Andrew Driver has shown his quality despite a few injuries. Despite it being a poor season results wise, I think there are still a lot of positives to take from it."

On Hearts.TV today - watch an exclusive interview with Neil McCann now plus catch full pre-match news conference coverage from Riccarton later.

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