SCOTLAND'S warm-up match with Holland in Arnhem next week could well end up as a reserve match, if injury and club demands reach the peak that is possible this weekend.
In Scotland's case, coach Craig Brown has to cling to the forlorn hope that his squad will survive four days of club commitments coming up this Easter weekend. In the case of Holland's coach, Frank Rijkaard, he has to cope with the threat from Barcelona that they will withdraw seven members of his squad because they play a Spanish Cup semi-final second leg against Atletico Madrid on the same night.
The chances are high that the 22-strong pool named by Brown yesterday for the friendly in the Gelredome Stadium a week tomorrow will be badly affected by withdrawals as they play in many hotly contested league games in England and Scotland on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.
In fact, only two players out of the 22 can be sure of flying to Holland on Monday, Allan Johnston and Paul Ritchie, both of whom are with Bolton Wanderers (Johnston is on loan from Sunderland before he moves to Rangers at the end of the season), whose game at Huddersfield has been postponed at their request, as they have three players (the other is Finnish) wanted by their national sides.
Holland could be without Ronald and Frank de Boer, Patrick Kluivert, Philip Cocu, Winston Bogarde, Michael Reizeger, and Boudewijn Zenden as Barcelona are 3-0 down from the first leg of their cup tie and have asked that their huge Dutch contingent be available to try to rescue their chances of a place in the final.
There is also the risk of injury to others, including the Rangers pair, Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Arthur Numan.
Dutch FA spokesman Rob Deleede said: ''Barcelona have indicated they would rather they had a full squad for their Spanish Cup tie, but obviously the game against Scotland is vital for us too. Everyone knows the Barcelona players are very important to the Holland squad.
''Our manager, Frank Rijkaard, will speak to the Barcelona manager, Dutchman Louis van Gaal, this week and, hopefully, we can come to some kind of arrangement before we announce the squad for the friendly on Thursday.''
Brown, as optimistic as ever, is confident that he will get through with a major slice of his intended side available. ''We have a minor problem with the fixture list,'' was his typically low-key admission, ''and we have decided not to train on Sunday as we would be without quite a few players who are playing on Sunday or Monday.
''If we lose key players on Saturday, we will have time to call in replacements, but after that it would be difficult. However, we have named 22 players and we need 18 for the game - there are seven substitutes allowed - so we have earmarked some of the under-21 players who could make up the numbers if needs be.''
That would include Edinburgh players Gary Wales, of Hearts, and Kenny Miller, of Hibernian, whose value as strikers might be necessary as it looks likely that Rangers' Billy Dodds, who limped off the field at Tannadice on Saturday, will be doubtful.
The players involved with teams scheduled to take part in the Sunday games are Barry Ferguson, and perhaps Dodds, of Rangers, who meet St Johnstone in what will probably be a title-winning TV spectacular at McDiarmid Park in the evening; and Kevin Gallacher of Newcastle United, who meet Leeds United in the afternoon. On Monday, Blackburn Rovers, with Christian Dailly and Callum Davidson involved, face Charlton.
On Friday, Everton take on city rivals Liverpool, a game to which Don Hutchison and David Weir are likely to be heavily committed. Derby County, whose Scotland man, Craig Burley, is a key figure, are at Bradford.
All of that . . . and there is still a full complement of players set to play on Saturday in both countries.
It would be fanciful indeed to imagine that Brown will not be counting a seriously depleted squad by the time he takes them out to the aircraft on Monday. Still, all being well, the coach hopes that the return of the experienced men who were absent in the 2-0 defeat by France at Hampden last month will shape the side for the test against the Dutch, who see this as a warm-up for Euro 2000, which, of course, will not include Scotland.
Matt Elliott, of Leicester City, Weir, Paul Lambert, and Jackie McNamara of Celtic, Burley and Brian O'Neil, of Wolfsburg, are all back in the fold and, if they survive the weekend, will bolster the squad considerably.
''I hope that there will be very little experimentation about this game, because we need to get some consistency of selection to prepare for the World Cup qualifying games. I am hoping we will have Lambert and Ferguson because that gives me options, in that Burley can play in the wing-back role or midfield, which can let me use Ferguson further forward.''
In his established back three, he has lost the immensely valuable contribution of injured Celtic captain Tommy Boyd, but both Colin Hendry and Weir are there, while Ritchie and Elliott are capable of fitting in as required. ''Basically, what we want now is the team that beat England at Wembley, with Lambert for Collins, and others to back them up,'' he explained.
Brown will change his usual system to cope with the way the Dutch play, as they use two wide front players and another through the middle.
The coach made a point of naming some other players who could be involved in the squad when the real thing starts; Gary Naysmith, Steven Pressley, Russell Anderson, and Stephen McMillan.
The Squads
Robert Douglas .............. (Dundee)
Jonathan Gould .................. (Celtic)
Neil Sullivan ................ (Wimbledon)
Christian Dailly (Blackburn Rovers)
Matt Elliott .............. (Leicester City)
Colin Hendry .......... (Coventry City)
Brian O'Neil .......... (VFL Wolfsburg)
Paul Ritchie ...... (Bolton Wanderers)
David Weir ......................... (Everton)
Craig Burley ........... (Derby County)
Colin Cameron ................... (Hearts)
Callum Davidson (Blackburn Rovers)
Barry Ferguson ............... (Rangers)
Don Hutchison ................. (Everton)
Allan Johnston ........... (Sunderland)
Paul Lambert ...................... (Celtic)
Jackie McNamara ............. (Celtic)
Paul Telfer ............... (Coventry City)
Mark Burchill ....................... (Celtic)
Billy Dodds ....................... (Rangers)
Kevin Gallacher (Newcastle United)
Neil McCann .................... (Rangers)
Scotland Under-21 - Ryan Esson (Aberdeen), Paul Gallacher (Dundee Utd), James Langfield (Dundee), Colin Stewart (Kilmarnock), Stephen Caldwell (Newcastle), Chris Doig (Nottingham Forest), Stuart Fraser (Luton Town), Andrew Jordan (Bristol City), Robbie Neilson (Hearts), Lee Wilkie (Dundee), Warren Cummings (Chelsea), Hugh Davidson (Dundee Utd), Craig Easton (Dundee Utd), Kieran McAnespie (St Johnstone), Hugh Murray (St Mirren), Scott Severin (Hearts), Brian Carrigan (Clyde), Kenny Miller (Hibernian), Alex Notman (Manchester Utd), Neil Tarrant (Aston Villa), Gary Wales (Hearts).
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article