Why do so many of our players not want to play for Scotland?

Fletcher played and scored in Wednesday’s last two matches, including a win on Saturday.

For the double-header with Albania and Israel at the end of last year, Alex McLeish found himself having to put a positive spin on ten players pulling out of his original squad. Some, of course, were injured, and that does happen. The problem being it happens to Scotland an awful lot.

In the summer tour to Peru and Mexico, it was perfectly understandable that some players would not go on the trip after a long season. Indeed, it would benefit the Scotland manager for some of his senior men to have a proper rest.

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Six pulled out of that trip who were named in the original squad of 24, having previously indicated that they were up for the tour.

And now, with Scotland in Kazakhstan who they play on Thursday and then it’s onto San Marino, McLeish is once again fending questions about certain players’ desire to turn out for their country.

Jordan Archer, Barry Bannan and Charlie Mulgrew are injured, while Ryan Fraser nor Callum Paterson will play in Kazakhstan because of concerns over the impact of the artificial surface at the Astana Arena.

I will have missed more than one absentee but if you forgive the dodgy arithmetic, I make 19 official pull-outs over three squads, plus those who for whatever reason are not available to McLeish. That’s not including those such as McGregor who have quit the scene.

Oh, and of course there is our captain. Andy Robertson, who will miss the match against Kazakhstan through no fault of his own but will be on duty for the San Marino game despite suffering from what sounds like a hellish mouth abscess.

If Big Eck can bring back six big points, he will have done well.

There surely won’t be another country in international football who suffers more from players being unavailable.

Gareth Bale always turns up for Wales and they hardly play glamour matches all the time. The Northern Ireland lads walk on broken glass for Michael O’Neill and while the Republic of Ireland have had a poor year, new manager Mick McCarthy isn’t far away from full strength.

Cristiano Ronaldo has played 154 times for Portugal, Sergio Ramos with 161 caps for Spain trumps even the great man, while Giorgio Chiellini is now on 100 appearances for Italy.

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Which does rather beg the question: if international football is good enough for world class stars then why do (some) Scotland players believe to be beneath them?

Because, let’s face it, there are too many who see playing for Scotland as something they’d rather not do for a number of reasons which end in one situation; a less than full-strength Scottish national team facing countries which don’t have these problems.

“The last thing you want when you are going into a campaign is to lose players and particularly goalscorers who you can rely on to lead the line,” said former Scotland player Scott Booth.

“That’s what Alex has to cope with and previous bosses have had to that too. We never seem to get the luck. Players get injured or lack the form when it comes to the time to do the business.

“Although Fletcher is a massive miss we are going to need more than him over the course of the campaign to chip in with goals.

“If you’re inexperienced but in form then I would play players who are scoring goals and give them confidence to get that with the national team. The front players who are in Kazakhstan will be needed throughout the campaign.

“It’s a youthful squad and there are others who have had to work really hard to get to where they’ve got to in the game and now have a chance to play for Scotland when they didn’t think they would do.

“The nation is also a bit more positive having won the last two games. In my time players wanted to play for their country.”

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That’s not the case now. The Fletcher situation is a delicate one. Does McLeish bag him for players who will always be there for him?

“Things change, but Alex has to balance it all,” said Booth. “There will be games when he needs Fletcher and he has to think to himself that he has to manage the situation.

“There’s no point cutting of his nose to spite his face. He has to manage it the right way and make sure it works for Scotland.

“It’s not an easy situation - to a certain extent he’s been dictated to but the last thing he wants is to be without Fletcher as an option for the whole campaign.

“Then again if it’s about a relationship, there has to be a bit of give and take. If that’s what’s needed to have a player available at some point to score a goal in a game we need to win then I’d do the same as Alex in that situation.”

Booth, who top scored for Scotland on the way to the 1996 European Championships, would take a punt on the in-form Hibernian strike Mark McNulty who has gone from not getting a game at Reading to perhaps a first cap.

“A player who can hold the ball up and who’s also scoring goals is McNulty.,” said Booth, manager of Glasgow City.

“Ideally, you’d have one player who combines all those different facets but McNulty is the one who’s finding the net regularly. It would be a fairytale if he plays.”

Scott Booth spoke at a William Hill media event. William Hill is a proud sponsor of Scottish football.