Steve Clarke admits he fears his Scotland squad could be decimated by call-offs if clubs follow Celtic ’s lead by pulling their players from the Turkey friendly.
The Scotland boss’ group of 23 players was named with Tony Ralston, David Turnbull and Greg Taylor all missing as their manager Ange Postecoglou wants them for Celtic’s two-game trip to Australia next week. And Clarke admitted the situation was a head-scratcher because Scotland have been obliged to take on a fixture as part of a UEFA-Sky TV agreement to show 10 games in a year.
Next week’s clash in Turkey is not being played in an official international window and Clarke said: “It’s very strange. Don’t ask me to explain it because I’ve got no idea. It’s a game that we had to play because we had to fulfil the 10 game contract. But somehow it doesn’t become an official window. Don’t ask me how that works. We will just deal with it and move on. Obviously I’m disappointed that we are not getting the (Celtic) players. I’m probably more disappointed for the players than anything else that they don’t get the chance to come away with the national team. I know they enjoy coming away with us and some of them have missed out on a selection. But because it’s not an official window Celtic are entitled to do that. So we just have to deal with it.
