Hearts midfielder Peter Haring is to see a specialist in a bid to cure a pelvic injury.

Haring was suffering the problem towards the end of last season and played through the pain barrier in the Scottish Cup final.

Levein admitted that pushing the 26-year-old Austrian to play in the Hampden showpiece may have worsened the injury.

He said: "It's helluva frustrating. He (Haring) turned out to be one of our most significant players last season and when he was out the team we struggled to fill that gap.

"In some ways, I'm partly responsible for pushing him to the cup final. It was a risk and reward thing. I don't know if that's a direct consequence, but it couldn't have helped, so I've got to take some responsibility for that.

"The question now is that in the pelvic area there are so many different things that interact. Sometimes it's not just one problem, it can be more than that.

"He's away down south tomorrow to get another investigation and we'll get results on that towards the end of the week, so I'm hopeful we'll get to the bottom of it. That's basically the problem, finding out what we need to fix.

"Once we've got that, we can get on with it. I'm very hopeful that we'll get, at least, an accurate diagnosis by the end of the week."

Hearts begin their season on Friday night when Dundee United visit Tynecastle in the opening tie of the League Cup group stage.

They have so far signed Craig Halkett from Livingston, Conor Washington from Sheffield United and Jamie Walker from Wigan this summer.

But Haring's injury, plus the departure of Arnaud Djoum to a club in Saudi Arabia, means Levein is likely to enter the transfer marker again to beef up his squad.

Levein said: "I think we'll need to do something in that regard. When that is, well, we've still got plenty of time.

"We've got enough cover at the moment for me to feel that we can go into competitive matches without worrying too much.

"There's also the added complication that we weren't 100% sure whether Arnaud Djoum was staying or leaving. We now know the answer to that.

"So that probably reinforces my thoughts that we need another midfield player."