Scotland fitness update given after energy-sapping game at Wembley - and positive news on Kieran Tierney injury

Steve Clarke is keeping his fingers crossed that all his players emerged unscathed from Friday night’s 0-0 draw with England at Wembley.
Scotland shut down England during the 0-0 draw at Wembley.Scotland shut down England during the 0-0 draw at Wembley.
Scotland shut down England during the 0-0 draw at Wembley.

The Scotland manager revealed Kieran Tierney has reported nothing untoward following the game after his race to be fit for the clash with England. The Arsenal player picked up a calf niggle in training and missed last Monday’s opening game against Czech Republic.

Tierney was a key contributor to the result against England that keeps Scotland in the hunt to make history by qualifying for the knockout stage of a major finals for the first time.

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Every player who featured in London will continue to be assessed prior to Tuesday’s final, must-win Group D clash against Croatia. Clarke fears delayed ill-effects surfacing following the gruelling outing.

The manager will likely want to select as close to the same starting XI as possible after they took the game to England so well, which would mean a second successive start for 20-year-old Billy Gilmour.

“Normal bumps and bruises,” reported Clarke. “Kieran hasn't reported anything untoward to the physios. The normal aches and pains after a game but it's always difficult to tell on the first day, we'll know a bit more tomorrow [Sunday].”

The players were all given a day off on Saturday following the endeavours at Wembley. The clash at Hampden on Tuesday will be Scotland's third game in eight days.

“Now is two days of almost complete recovery,” said Clarke. “There's not much that we can do tactically on the football pitch, so a little bit more in the classroom if you like. [There will be] A walk through on the day of the game to try and get our tactics tied down so that we can produce another good performance but basically the message for the next three days is recovery, recovery, recovery.”

Clarke would not be drawn on the make-up of his side but, fitness permitting, it would not be surprising to see an unchanged team line up against Croatia.

“If we get everybody on the pitch that we want to get on the pitch and they all produce eight out of ten performances, then you would hope that would be good enough to get us the win that we need to get out of the group stages,” said the manager.

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