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Craig Levein admits he struggled to keep a straight face giving Steven MacLean a talking-to over Bawsgate.

But the smile was wiped off it last night after the Hearts striker was offered a two-game ban once SFA compliance officer Clare Whyte had reviewed footage of Sunday’s incident.

The 36-year-old was caught on camera grabbing Eboue Kouassi’s privates at Murrayfield and Levein laughed after learning his frontman has being doing it to opponents for years.

MacLean is still free to face Hibs – a relief for his gaffer after Steven Naismith was ruled out for up to two months with a knee injury requiring an operation.

But he could miss Saturday’s league clash away to Celtic if it’s rejected at Thursday’s hearing.

Levein said: “I can’t speak to Steven without laughing but we’ve had a chat. He knows he can’t do that.

“He says he’s been doing it for years and I did have a wee chuckle at that. But they’ve changed the rules in the summer. We knew the rule change but Steven just seems to like doing it.”

Levein can’t believe Hearts’ luck with injuries after Naismith was added to a list including John Souttar, Christophe Berra and Uche Ikpeazu.

Peter Haring is nursing a nerve problem that hampered him during the Betfred Cup semi-final loss to Celtic, although his boss is hopeful the Austrian can feature tonight despite also being due hernia surgery.

Levein said: “It’s quite remarkable and there’s nothing we can do about it.

(Image: SNS Group)

“Naisy looks like he has a cartilage problem so will need an operation. It’s a

bit more complicated than usual because he’s a Norwich player, so we need to send him back down there for an assessment. They, as a parent club, will decide what’s happening.

“But I’m pretty sure he’ll go under the knife in the next two or three days.

“In my whole career I had a situation where two players snapped their Achilles but we had two in a year with Arnaud Djoum and John.

“Christophe pulled his hamstring off the bone and I’d never heard of that happening. John now has an incredibly unusual injury and in all my time in football I’ve never heard of Uche’s injury.”