Newcastle star Harvey Barnes is open to a potential international allegiance switch from England to Scotland, according to reports.
The former Leicester City man has just one cap for England, but is currently not in the plans of manager Gareth Southgate.
The Times now report that Barnes is exploring options of changing his allegiances to Scotland, where he qualifies through his grandparents.
The 25-year-old is still able to play for Scotland given he hasn't played a competitive fixture for England. His one cap to date came in a friendly against Wales.
It is understood that Barnes has turned down approaches from the SFA in the past, but he now appears open to the option, especially given Scotland's strong position in Euro 2024 qualfying.
Meanwhile, Ryan Porteous believes the Tartan Army have every right to be excited about Scotland’s Euro 2024 prospects but insists the squad must remain focused.
The 24-year-old Watford centre-back scored his first international goal in the assured 3-0 win over Cyprus in Larnaca on Friday night as Steve Clarke’s side made it five Group A qualifying wins from their first five fixtures.
The close-range strike was sandwiched in between Scott McTominay’s sixth goal in five games and a delightful finish from midfielder John McGinn – his 17th for Scotland – with the several thousand travelling fans singing about reaching Germany next summer.
Scotland take on England in a special 150th anniversary heritage match at Hampden Park on Tuesday night and if Norway and Georgia draw their qualifier in Oslo the same evening then the Scots will have reached their second successive European Championship – with games against Spain, Georgia and Norway still to come to finish the job if required.
Porteous said: “We have always been dreaming about getting there, from before the games started.
“The fans have every right to be excited. There’s probably been a lot of times before with Scotland teams when they’ve not been.
“They can look forward and get carried away but we as a group have to stay level-headed because we have a big game on Tuesday and a lot of big games coming up.”
