Hearts are facing a selection headache ahead of Saturday's Premier League clash with Kilmarnock after several players reported sick at Tynecastle.

Ten players were sent home from training on Thursday afternoon complaining of a virus - including first team regulars Gary Wales, Scott Severin, Stephen Simmons and Steven Pressley.

Hearts manager Craig Levein told the Edinburgh Evening News: "This is obviously a major problem for us.

"We had to send home ten members of the squad from training with some sort of sickness bug.

"I hope that it's just a 24 hour thing.

"We have the doctor coming in to have a look at them and we will just have to wait and see what he says.

"I have informed the league that we may have a problem but that was done more as a precaution.

"The main concern I have is that more players come in feeling ill in which case we would be in major difficulty."