Melbourne Heart has moved to bolster its defensive stocks by signing former Australian international defender Patrick Kisnorbo on a one-year deal.

The ex Socceroo has spent the past 10 years playing mostly in the Scottish Premier League or the English Championship, the bulk of the time at clubs like Hearts, Leicester and Leeds United.

Patrick Kisnorbo during his stint with Leeds United. Credit:Reuters

The tall and rangy Kisnorbo can play at either right back or in the middle of defence. Strong in the air and courageous, Kisnorbo is a tough tackling no-nonsense player who will bring some bite to a Heart rearguard that all too often looked vulnerable on the road last season, when it failed to win a single away game.

The 32-year-old began his career with South Melbourne in the old National Soccer League before moving to Scotland with Hearts, for whom he played in the country's top flight and in the UEFA Cup.

Kisnorbo played for Australia in the 2002 and 2004 Oceania Nations Cups as well as in the 2007 Asian Cup. He was a regular member of Socceroo squads under Pim Verbeek and looked to be a good chance to win selection for the 2010 World Cup. But a serious injury – a ruptured Achilles tendon – ruled him out of contention and he was never able to break back in to national team contention on a regular basis after that.

Over the years Kisnorbo has suffered a series of unlucky injuries, but Heart officials are confident he will stand up to the rigours of an A-League season.

With Orlando Engelaar out for much of the campaign with a broken leg, the arrival of Kisnorbo will give Heart coach John Aloisi the option of moving Patrick Gerhardt, who was signed as a defensive midfielder, into that hole created by the Dutchman's injury. Gerhardt spent last season as a centre back but his versatility makes him the obvious candidate to move into the centre of the park.