JACK Hendry has expressed optimism the injury Kieran Tierney suffered in Scotland’s draw with Switzerland at Euro 2024 will not be too serious as he looked ahead to the massive match against Hungary.
Hendry was devastated when his fellow centre half Tierney went to ground clutching his left leg in the second-half of the Group A game in the RheinEnergieStadion in Cologne on Wednesday night.
The Arsenal player was stretchered off with his head in his hands and national team manager Steve Clarke admitted afterwards that it looks to be “a bad one”.
The former Celtic man will not be available for the encounter with Hungary in the MHPArena in Stuttgart on Sunday – a match which Scotland need to win to make it through to the knockout rounds of a major tournament for the first time in their history.
However, Hendry is hopeful the defender will not be out of action for long as a result of the knock which he sustained in North Rhine-Westphalia
“I feel for KT obviously,” he said. “It is never nice to see your team mates go down injured and as soon as it happened after the game all the boys rallied around him and tried to say as many positive things as possible.
“It was a night that obviously involved a lot of high intensity runs with their wingers, who were quite direct and got in behind us. It was probably a game plan.
“We were quite aggressive in the way we played and they obviously played down the flanks and both wingers were very fast. It was a game that had many tough duels in it from a defensive point of view.
“But KT stood up very strong and - every single one of our players did - and unfortunately that happened in that incident.”
Asked if he thought Tierney would be feature against at Euro 2024 if Scotland do progress, Hendry said: “You never know. Obviously I am not an expert. KT is not an expert. That is down to the physios and the medical team to look at and assess.
“As I said, fingers crossed it is not as bad as first feared. It will just be a waiting game to find out the extent.”
Hendry feels the support that injured Lyndon Dykes and suspended Ryan Porteous give their Scotland team mates highlights the closeness of the squad at Euro 2024.
“It just says a lot about the group,” he said. “Obviously in bad times or good times you stick together and that says a lot about the make-up of this squad.
“If you get setbacks or knocks someone is there to pick you up and vice versa. It shows a lot about the squad and its togetherness and I think we have obviously been on this run and hopefully that charisma and togetherness can continue.”
