Neil Critchley says Hearts forward Kenneth Vargas apologised to his teammates over comments he made during the November international break.
Vargas signed a new long-term contract at the end of last season but stunned Hearts fans recently when he said he could potentially leave the club in January and called out the standard of Scottish football.
His comments were given in an interview to ESPN in Costa Rica and the 22-year-old was quick to clarify that what he said was misinterpreted.
Vargas’ flight home to Edinburgh from his homeland was delayed on Friday but he still managed to make a substitute appearance against Celtic on Saturday.
Critchley has now revealed he sat down with Vargas on Sunday to address the comments and stresses the striker has now learned from the ordeal.
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Critchley and Vargas held Hearts talks
Critchley told the press ahead of his side’s Europa Conference League clash against Cercle Brugge: “I spoke to him on Sunday. We had a good conversation.
“I think Kenneth’s learned from the experience. He knows my feelings as well. That’s a private conversation between me and Kenneth, but Kenneth’s a good guy.
“He’s a good person. Since I’ve been at the football club, he trains every single day. He trains really well. He’s committed to this football club and he wants to get better as a football player. That’s my job, to try and help him.
“I know he has apologised to the team-mates. We had a good conversation. I said to him how I felt and made a couple of things clear to him.
“He explained what he was attempting to say, and he’s learned from the experience, so hopefully we can not have an issue like that again in the future.”
Critchley on Cercle Brugge challenge
Hearts are only a win away from qualifying for the knockout play-off round and could do so in Belgium on Thursday night. On that, Critchley said: “I think there’s a quiet excitement.
“I don’t mention leagues and I don’t mention points. We just concentrate on the process and then hopefully everything else takes care of itself. We’re all human, we know what could be lying further ahead down the line.
“We don’t speak about that, I don’t speak about that, because our focus is just on how to prepare for this game and how do we take to the pitch tomorrow night with a plan and implement that as best as we can to give ourselves the best chance of picking up the points that we need.
“It’s about the players, it’s about the club. It would be a big thing, it would be massive. It’s exciting coming here, travelling here, seeing the stadium. It’s different, it has a different feel to it.
“Life’s for living and having different experiences and this gives all of us here, everyone, a great opportunity for us to progress further if we can and have more days and nights like this in the future.”