Christos Karipidis fears he may have to quit Hearts to save his career.

The Greek defender has been frozen out at Tynecastle this season and admitted that, if he's not getting a regular start by the turn of the year, he may be forced to look for another club.

He told the Edinburgh Evening News: "The team is playing well now and maybe I will have to wait for my chance to come back into the team.

"But I am fit and I am just waiting for the manager to give me my chance again. Players always want to be out there playing football every week and I am no different.

"I want to play for Hearts but I will have to wait and see what happens. If the situation is the same in January then maybe I will have to see if I can find another club.

"Whatever I do, I just want to be playing football because it is not good for me to always be out of the team. I like Edinburgh very much, it is a nice city, but I am not here as a tourist, I came here to play football. I feel good here and my wife loves living here.

"I want to stay and play for Hearts but I need to play games. This is my work and I always try.

"But it is still very early in the season and I will have to wait to see what happens because maybe next month I will start to play first-team football regularly for Hearts again, you just don't know."