the Hampden boss<\/a> has warned cap hopefuls like Halkett that they will find it \u201cdifficult\u201d to break in to his group as his mind was “more or less set\u201d.<\/p>\nThat might come as a blow to the Hearts ace but Halkett hopes he\u2019ll have something else to celebrate at Tynecastle in the days ahead.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cWinning the title would be an unbelievable achievement for everyone here. Like you said, probably something nobody would have imagined at the start of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cRegardless of what happens on the Scotland front, Hearts has always been my full focus and it will be until the end of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cHave I allowed myself to think about going to the World Cup with Scotland? Not really, to be honest.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d be lying if I said it wasn\u2019t something I was thinking about back in March when the squad came out because I felt I was having a great season. But again, I wasn\u2019t too disappointed not to be included.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve just been focusing on my football at Hearts and trying to do the best I can for Hearts. If that takes me somewhere else, then brilliant. If it doesn\u2019t, then it\u2019s back to just focusing on Hearts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Halkett\u2019s aim now is to help McInnes men pick up a huge win when they travel to Fir Park tonight, where a win will see them go six points clear.<\/p>\n
But the 30-year-old will allow himself to tune in on Sunday as closest rivals Celtic face Rangers in the final Old Firm crunch of the campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll watch it,\u201d he grinned. \u201cIn general, I\u2019m a football fan \u2014 a Scottish football fan. I watch the majority of games if they\u2019re on.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut first it\u2019s full focus on Saturday. Once that game\u2019s done, I\u2019ll have my usual Sunday, chill out with my family and watch whatever\u2019s on.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know from your point of view our game at Fir Park it\u2019s not a normal game, but for us it is.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the same as it\u2019s been all season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a chance to go away to Motherwell, who are doing really well and have had a great season. We know how tough it\u2019s going to be. The previous three games against them have all been really difficult.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it\u2019s just full focus on that. We don\u2019t think about what it means if we win, draw or lose. It\u2019s just about going there and trying to pick up three points. Hopefully if we do that, then we can look at the next game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boss McInnes has been hailed this week having scooped both PFA Scotland and Premiership sponsors Glen\u2019s manager of the year awards.<\/p>\n
And Halkett is adamant those prizes are richly deserved after an incredible first campaign in the Gorgie hot seat.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cHe\u2019s been massive for me.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight from when we first spoke on the phone before pre-season. I didn\u2019t know him personally before, but we\u2019d had a couple of conversations earlier in my career and I\u2019d always admired what he\u2019d done at his other clubs.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was honest and said it was a fresh start for everyone when he came into the building. I obviously believed in myself that if I came back fit and stayed fit, I could play games.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe just said that if I came back and did well, I could be a big player for the team, and thankfully it\u2019s turned out that way.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s put a lot of belief in me and given me confidence back that I\u2019ve probably always had, but maybe lost over the last few years. To get that back, I\u2019ll always be thankful to him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Clarke raised eyebrows when he claimed the Jambos were ‘better than the sum of their parts’ Craig Halkett…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":947614,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5009],"tags":[748,2628,143018,71562,4884,47959,21843,78418,1946,712,13315,1638,70571,16,15,93214],"class_list":{"0":"post-947613","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scotland","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-celtic-fc","10":"tag-craig-halkett","11":"tag-derek-mcinnes","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-hearts-fc","14":"tag-hibernian-fc","15":"tag-motherwell-fc","16":"tag-rangers-fc","17":"tag-scotland","18":"tag-scotland-football-team","19":"tag-scottish-premiership","20":"tag-steve-clarke","21":"tag-uk","22":"tag-united-kingdom","23":"tag-world-cup-2026"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116542896731322947","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=947613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/947614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=947613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=947613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=947613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Craig](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0_Heart-of-Midlothian-Training-and-Press-Conference.jpg\")
<\/p>\n