Craig Halkett is set to go under the knife after the Hearts star played through the pain to face Rangers.
The Tynecastle stopper joined John Souttar in the heart of Robbie Neilson's backline as the Light Blues ran out 2-0 winners after extra-time to lift the Scottish Cup.
Ryan Jack and Scott Wright grabbed the goals at the national stadium.
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Neilson was full of praise for the defender and team-mates Liam Boyce and Souttar for the part they played last weekend.
And he has now confirmed Halkett will have surgery to sort his injury issue.
READ MORE: Rangers-bound John Souttar opens up after leaving Hearts as he looks ahead to Scotland games
He told BBC Radio Scotland: "We asked Souttar, Halkett and Boyce, who had all hardly trained at all, to play.
"Craig is in need of surgery and he put it back so he could play in the final.
"You could see as we went into extra-time that he put his body on the line, so I could not ask any more from any of the players.
"We just didn't have enough to take that final step."
Neilson expressed his disappointment at Hearts losing out to Rangers in the season finale.
But he reckons it is the start of something special in the capital.
He added: "We got demoted two years ago, fought back to get promoted, fought back to European football, fought back to get to a final.
"The next step is go and win there and continually do it.
"We were bitterly disappointed we didn't take the next step, but we're at the start of something special here.
"If we continue to push forward and get to the group stage in Europe then we can really build this club."
