Hearts sell striker Tagawa to Kashima Antlers

Kyosuke Tagawa's last goal for Hearts was in May's 3-3 draw with Rangers

Japanese striker Kyosuke Tagawa has left Heart of Midlothian to join J-League club Kashima Antlers for an undisclosed fee.

The 25-year-old, capped twice for his country, scored three goals in 20 appearances since joining the Scottish Premiership club from FC Tokyo last summer.

Head coach Steven Naismith told his club website: "He hasn’t managed to get the amount of minutes on the pitch that he would’ve liked and you can probably put that down to the form of our other forwards over the past year.

"He wants to play regularly, so when the opportunity arose for him to return to the J-League, it made sense for everyone to get it done."

Naismith admitted on Thursday that Tagawa's departure "frees up money for sure and also the transfer fee" but added "I'm not instantly looking".

"There's not something that we've got sitting waiting to go, 'right, we're going to move on this'," he said. "That's not going to happen. We're well covered in that position."

Hearts have also been working on a deal for Atletico Nacional's 21-year-old Colombia-capped left-back, Andre Salazar.

Salazar attended Saturday's 0-0 draw with Rangers at Tynecastle.

"Everybody's on the same page of what we want," explained Naismith, whose side visit Dundee on Saturday evening.

"We now just need to do the paperwork, the issues with visas and work permits. I don't expect anything to happen until next week, confirming that."