Vrancken lost Harry Milne on the eve of the game for the season and Christian Borchgrevink was forced off with a hamstring issue

Luckless Wouter Vrancken spoke of his pride at the way his injury-ravaged Hearts side went toe-to-toe with Trabzonspor, writes Scott Burns from Turkey.

The Turkish giants saw off the Jambos thanks to Mo Salah’s penalty and a goal from Dju Franculino in their Conference League group clash.

Vrancken went into this game without several key players, lost Harry Milne to a potential ACL in the build-up and saw Christian Borchgrevink limp off with a hamstring issue during the game.

The Belgian said: “In the dressing room, I said to them how proud I am today about their performance. When you lose, you always have this negative feeling, being a sportsman, but knowing where it comes from from the weekend and all the injury stuff.

"We have only one midfielder left, six injured, so I have to say that you can't put your foot next to this team of Trabzonspor who spent a lot of money in the summer and even got Mo Salah on a free transfer. So then you know what quality they have.

“So I'm really proud of the performance from them, and then for me, they bounced back from the weekend, for sure, performance-wise. It's just a pity that we couldn't get the result because I think we didn't give too much away.

"We saw again guts on the ball, you saw people being brave in defence and one-v-ones against really top players. So it also has to give confidence towards the weekend."

The disappointment was the manner of the goals they lost but with so many players out of position it was inevitable.

Vrancken acknowledged: The goals, we could prevent them, of course.

“It's a shame that we have the penalty there, and we had to take our moments there. There were a few moments. Also, the clearest moment was the header from Malachi [Fagan-Walcott] on the post.

“When you want to win those top games in Europe, you have to take those moments. But nothing bad about them because also defensive-wise, with [Rogers] Mato at left-back, he was unbelievable.

“He was against one of the best players in Europe in this position. Also Jordi [Altena], out of position, played a really great game. So I'm really happy about the performance, and I'm just happy that there was no result.”

Hearts will now have Borchgrevink scanned when he gets home. It looks like a hamstring tear that will keep the Norwegian out for several weeks.

Vrancken claimed: “Yes, it was his hamstring. So, like he said himself: when it rains, it pours.

“It's a bit like this at this moment.

“We have to manage it properly and try to get the best out of everybody.

“I hope to see that the guys out of position also, put everything in there, and do everything for the team, to help the team in these moments.

“So I'm happy to see this.”

There are concerns that Milne’s season could be over and he has done his ACL in training on Wednesday evening.

The Hearts manager added: “Yeah, true. Like Borchgrevink, when it rains, it pours. And Harry was unlucky because there was no fatigue because he didn't play in the last game.

“It was not a contact, not a duel, not a crazy move or something.

“He injured his knee, so we have to see what the scans will say."

Claudio Braga reckons the performance can give Hearts confidence going into Sunday’s clash with Motherwell.

The striker said: “That’s the frustrating part, to be honest, there are just so many injuries.

“I don’t know why we are getting so many injuries.

“I look at the group and it is a lot of professional guys, it is nothing about people not training or doing what they want—it’s just bad luck.

“Hopefully we can bounce back from it. We are using players in completely different positions, so given the circumstances it is not an awful result, to be honest.”