Cammy Devlin admits Hearts 'FOMO' during tough injury stint as he names his extra motivation after return

Cammy Devlin admits a double dose of FOMO is fuelling his desire to break back into the regular Hearts fold.

The midfielder came off the bench to help wrap up Saturday's win over Motherwell, as Lawrence Shankland and Kenneth Vargas goals sealed a comfortable 2-0 victory. It moves Steven Naismith's men 14 points clear of fourth-placed Kilmarnock on their highly-impressive eight-game winning run.

Devlin has watched most of it from the sideline after spending over two months out of action with injury, which also ended his Asian Cup dreams with Australia. Teammates Nathaniel Atkinson and Kye Rowles jetted out to Qatar to represent the Socceroos.

Devlin was left watching from Edinburgh, and now is keen to make himself a Hearts regular once again. He said: "Double whammy. FOMO from not being at the Asian Cup and not playing for Hearts.

"It hasn't been fun but it gives you extra motivation to work as hard as you possibly can in the gym and I pride myself on hard work so that is what I have been doing and coming back in, it takes some time to get match fit.

"The past seven eight days of training I have been putting my head down working as hard as I can and I feel I have trained really well. Hopefully that leads to more and more minutes.

"It's tough to watch as you are not there but they are my mates at the end of the day. Not just Natty and Kye but all the other boys I have grown up through the ranks in national team football with.

"I am not the sort of person because I am not there... I am not like that. Good things happen to good people so if you wish people well which I do, your time will come. I watched as much as I could and I think they did really well and were unlucky not to get further."

There was devastation that his Asian Cup dream was over. It was one of his season goals and his injury left him forced into a watching brief, not able to even put himself in contention.

That is behind him now, and Devlin notes the importance of Saturday's win. Seeing happy faces amid the winning run handed him a boost amid plenty of hard days in the gym.

Devlin added: "Being injured, there's no good time for it. Your job everyday is to rock up at training and work as hard as we can. The best time of the week is Saturday when you get to be in front a crowd and practice what you have been doing in training.

"To miss out on that has been really tough to be honest. There's no sugar-coating it, it's been really tough at times. To see your mates going and winning and it's probably been a lot tougher if the team was losing as you would be desperate to help your mates. To see them win has been really good and it brings a positive atmosphere to training.

"The ones that have been injured, it makes it a bit easier as people are happy around the place. Any game I miss I am devastated but to miss three-odd months and the Asian Cup that was something I had as one of my goals for the year so to not even be up for contention for that because of injury was devastating.

"Natty and Kye did really well when they went over there and were really unlucky not to go further. Being injured at anytime is tough.

"It's really good to be back out there. Any footballer being injured is the worst thing in the world and no different for me. I hated it to be honest.

"You have got to work hard in the gym and that has been what I have been doing for the past three months and there is no feeling like it being on the grass running about with your mates and getting three points, no feeling like it. especially at home.

"This was a massive game and if we won today, we might be able to make that gap bigger and that is what's happened. It's about going on now, winning more games and for myself playing as much as I can because it's good to be back."