Kenneth Vargas has been delayed in his return from international duty but could still be involved in Heart of Midlothian's clash with Celtic on Saturday evening.

Neil Critchley revealed he has not had a chance to speak to the Costa Rican made comments to the media in his homeland during the international break, suggesting that he was keen to leave the club if an opportunity arose for him to step up from Scottish football.

"I would like to go somewhere else where I can have a better place and compete more," he said. "I don't want my words to be misinterpreted, but I want more friction, to play against better-level players.

“There’s a possibility that I could leave in January, it does not depend on me, there is a clause, if a team comes and pays, I am the one who has the final say, but these things are not in my hands. The clause is there. I have no problem negotiating."

Critchley was asked about Vargas' comments but didn't want to be drawn on them until he had spoken with the player. He is due back today.

"I haven't had a chance to speak to him, unfortunately," he said, "because there's been a complication with his return flight, so he's not yet back in the country. When he does return then I will be speaking to him, obviously.

"I don't want to go into it in too much detail until I've spoken to him one-to-one, face-to-face, because I think that would be wrong. I read his initial comments but then I also read his initial response to his own comments. And that's something that, as a club, myself, we'll deal with internally."

Vargas mentioned having an agreement or clause with the club regarding a transfer but it isn't something Critchley is aware of.

"Kenny signed a long-term contract in the summer," he said. "So I know he loves being here. I know he likes being here. I know he's fully committed to being here. He has ambition. We should never suppress ambition.

"But my findings of Kenny so far is he's a boy who wants to learn and get better and he has things to improve. The best talking you can do is always on the pitch."

Vargas still has a chance to be involved against Celtic, as does Yutaro Oda, but there are no further injury updates as Calem Nieuwenhof and Gerald Taylor remain out.

Craig Gordon, Kye Rowles and Lawrence Shankland were on international duty but returned unscathed with Gordon recovering from illness.

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"Yutaro has a chance," Critchley revealed. "He's trained this week. Not fully trained, but has trained enough to be considered for selection.

"Calem is still going to be a good few weeks away yet. He's obviously not trained since March time, I think it is so he just needs a period of time to gain more confidence in himself."

Hearts' training plans ahead of the Celtic clash were slightly altered with the team training at Tynecastle the last two days while one of the days at Oriam was pushed back slightly to allow the grass surface to thaw.

It was the first time since arriving that Critchley was able to spend a full week on the training ground with the team after the squad were given a few days off. It also allowed him to reflect on his time since being appointed.

"I was saying to the staff this morning, I think this is just coming to the end of the sixth week and it seems like it's flown by, but it seems longer than six weeks," he said. "We've had so many games, we had a bounce game as well. We've had an international break and we've had a lot going on.

"So it was nice to have a period of rest where you could reflect and evaluate what you've done and look at the performances and how we're going to improve, with the focus on a very busy, challenging, hectic schedule to come up in front of us again."