Craig Gordon rushed to hospital after horror injury in Christmas Eve clash

Hearts goalkeeper Craig Gordon was taken straight to hospital after suffering a gruesome leg injury in Saturday's draw against Dundee United.

The 39-year-old was stretchered off with 14 minutes remaining in the Scottish Premiership with his leg in a brace. The keeper had collided with Dundee striker Steven Fletcher, with images emerging afterwards suggesting he had done serious damage to his leg.

Gordon was replaced by Zander Clark for the rest of the game, with Hearts scoring a stoppage time penalty to claim a 2-2 draw. But all the concern afterwards was for Gordon, with Hearts boss Robbie Neilson confirming he had been taken to hospital.

"Craig (Gordon) is the one we're really worried about. He's away to hospital and it doesn't look great but I'm not going to speculate on it. We'll wait and see over the next few days, but my thoughts are with him and hopefully it's not too bad," Neilson said.

"I don't think Halkett's too bad. He's walking about which is pleasing. Initially we thought it was quite a bad one but he seems to have settled. I think he just jarred his knee but we'll get him scanned. Kingsley looks like a concussion so he'll just need to do the protocols and see where he is."

Fletcher opened the scoring for the hosts, while Michael Smith equalised just before the break. Dylan Levitt struck minutes into the restart to get United back in front before Lawrence Shankland's spot-kick four minutes into injury time.

Referee Colin Steven had awarded a penalty when Gordon collided with Fletcher, despite the keeper having appeared to get the ball. That decision was reversed after a VAR check, but Neilson was still left baffled by the official's performance.

"If I say what I really mean I'll end up with a 10-match ban," he said when asked about the officiating. "Some of the decision-making that went on out there wasn't pretty, to say the least. Wow.

"It was shambolic. I've seen Cammy's (Devlin) and he chops him, it's a penalty. They've got different rules to get round it but he chops him, his (Arnaud Djoum's) hand is down and he makes his body bigger.

"And then the one he gave against Craig (Gordon, which was subsequently overturned) was astounding. It's astounding that he even thinks that's a penalty. I've no idea what he was thinking about.

"Even if Fletcher got a touch, Craig made the save and the ball went 90 degrees to the right. But Fletcher didn't even get a touch and Craig knocked it 90 degrees to the right and for some reason, he gives a penalty. It's baffling.

"And then I don't think ours at the end was a penalty, to be honest. I think that was the wrong decision."