Hearts manager Derek McInnes is confident his squad is equipped to deal with the absences of Beni Baningime and Craig Halkett.

The Tynecastle side travel to Pittodrie after the international break aiming to continue their superb unbeaten start to the Scottish Premiership season.

McInnes has been able to stick with a largely settled team this term, but Baningime missed Sunday’s 1-1 draw against Dundee United with a hamstring strain.

“He did it late in the session on Friday morning,” McInnes said of Baningime, who is likely to be out until December.

“I spoke to Beni on Friday night and he thought he was fine, so we had kind of planned for him being in the team.

“But Beni’s never had a muscle injury before so he didn’t really know what was happening and then his scan results came back that he had a tear, so he was ruled out.

“But we’ve got good players here. Players have been champing at the bit, ready for an opportunity.

“We’re going to have to be without Beni for the next period of time and it’s opportunities for others. We’ll be fine in there, I’m not worried about that.”

Defender Halkett will also be absent for the trip to Aberdeen after he picked up his sixth Premiership yellow card against United.

He is now automatically suspended for one match, but McInnes believes the depth in that area of the pitch will serve Hearts well.

“We should have got the foul in the first place, it was a foul on Stephen Kingsley but we don’t get it,” said McInnes. “Halkett was always going to get his sixth booking but it was just a matter of when.

“We’re just disappointed that he now misses the next game and he knew it himself, you saw his reaction. I think it probably was a yellow card.

“We’ve got Frankie Kent back, we’ve got Michael [Steinwender] and we’ve got players like Jamie McCart. That’s why we’ve got the squad we’ve got.”