Hearts were forced into recruiting two centre-halves after injuries to Frankie Kent and Stephen Kingsley.
The Jambos pair are potentially out for the season, at least the majority of it, after both having to come off during a home draw with Aberdeen back in November.
Kye Rowles was also sold on to DC United for £600,000.
That would potentially have left the Tynecastle men short but they moved quickly to bring in Jamie McCart at the start of the window and have since followed that up with the addition of Michael Steinwender.
Lewis Neilson was also brought back from his loan at St Johnstone.
And it was just as well as Craig Halkett pulled up with an early injury and had to be replaced. Neilson had a Hearts sliding doors moment as he was that replacement but wasn’t supposed to have been in the squad until Daniel Oyegoke’s impending move to Hellas Verona.
Neilson was potentially heading out on loan before that but manager Neil Critchley was forced into a rethink, but Halkett’s injury leaves them short again.
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Halkett set for lengthy Hearts absence
With Steinwender still to get up to speed, the Jambos could really have done without another injury in that position. So they would have been praying Halkett’s prognosis wasn’t too bad.
That is not the case though as Critchley has revealed the hamstring problem is set to keep him out for a while.
“Halks has a hamstring problem so he is going to be out. It won’t be a short one,” he told the Edinburgh Evening News. “I don’t want to put a timeframe on it because players respond to treatment differently.
“Some get back quicker than you expect, some take longer. Halks isn’t going to be appearing in the next couple of weeks, that’s for certain. He has done really well for us so it is a bit of a blow.”
Do Hearts need to sign more centre-back cover?
Possibly, is the answer with the double impact of Oyegoke’s exit and Halkett’s injury occurring at the same time.
Until Steinwender is ready to go, that leaves just Neilson and McCart as the two players who can play in that position, although right-back Adam Forrester has played there at B team level and below.
It remains to be seen whether the Austrian is able to take a spot on the bench at Dundee this weekend or if that slot will be taken up a youth player.
So it doesn’t take a lot to see they are short and it wouldn’t be too much of a surprise to see a loan maybe come in to help tide them over.