Hearts: building delays at Tynecastle force a brief sojourn to Murrayfield

Hearts have played two League Cup matches at Tynecastle this season and friendlies, including against Newcastle

Hearts will not play any league matches at Tynecastle until November due to delays in the main stand construction.

The club say that wet weather and waiting for seating to arrive from the Far East forced the "contingency plan" of playing at Murrayfield.

Hearts will face Aberdeen in September and St Johnstone and Rangers in October at the national rugby stadium.

"Unfortunately, there are some things we cannot control," said chief executive Ann Budge.

"Despite the mammoth effort that has gone into the construction project up until now, we are not going to make our targeted open for business date of 9th September 2017 [against Aberdeen]."

Hearts had negotiated with the SPFL that their opening four fixtures against Celtic, Motherwell, Rangers and Kilmarnock would be played away from home.

The St Johnstone game will be on October 21, with the Rangers game scheduled to be seven days later. A third fixture, against Patrick Thistle on September 23 has been switched to Firhill.

"While this is disappointing, the cooperation of the management and staff at the SRU means we can accommodate all, indeed even more, of our supporters in fine style at the national rugby stadium," Budge added.

Hearts have played six European ties at Murrayfield going back to 2004, and they also hosted a friendly match against Barcelona back in the summer of 2007 watched by over 57,000 fans.

"Scottish Rugby is looking forward to welcoming Hearts to Murrayfield for three matches in the next couple of months," said Scottish Rugby's Chief Operating Officer Dominic McKay.

"As Scotland's biggest sporting stadium, Murrayfield has a history of hosting football matches having welcomed Hearts, Barcelona and Celtic in the past. We look forward to working closely with Hearts in the coming weeks."