Hearts Powerless To Stop Kingston

Laryea Kingston flew to Ghana yesterday to begin preparations for his country's World Cup qualifier against Benin in Cotonou on Sunday, with Hearts manager Csaba Laszlo admitting he is powerless to prevent the midfielder fulfilling international duties. Mindful that Ghana are entitled to invoke FIFA's five-day rule to force Kingston's release despite him not have played for Hearts this season, Laszlo reluctantly allowed the player to leave Edinburgh. The Black Stars have already qualified for next summer's World Cup finals in South Africa and coach Milovan Rajevac is keen to see Kingston in action as much as possible having been denied his services for much of this year through injury. He is expected to play a significant part of the game against Benin. Laszlo was angered last month when the player insisted on playing in Ghana's qualifier against Sudan and then flew to Holland for a friendly with Japan. Kingston travelled to Paisley as part of the Hearts squad on Saturday but was not stripped and watched the 2-1 defeat from the St Mirren Park stand. He has appeared only twice for his club since injuring a hamstring in February this year. Speaking on Monday, Laszlo said: "Larry goes to Ghana today, he only has one game and then he comes back. I can't stop this. "We have a week after he comes back and we will look at him. "We will look to get friendly games this week for the players who are not playing so much. "I think we need all our players fit and we need our older players, like Larry, to take more responsibility."