NATHAN PATTERSON has been ruled out of contention for a starting spot in Scotland's match against Ukraine at Hampden on Wednesday night.
The 20-year-old right-back, who has struggled for game time at Everton since moving from Rangers in January and had ankle surgery at the beginning of April, was given a couple of days training to prove his fitness ahead of the World Cup play-off semi-final.
Asked if everyone in his squad was okay, national team manager Steve Clarke said: "Everyone except Nathan. Nathan has run out of time a little bit for the first game.
"So Nathan won't be involved in the first game but everyone else is good to go."
Clarke was asked about former Scotland skipper Graeme Souness saying that he wanted Ukraine to win and then go on to lift the World Cup.
He said: "I can't put myself into anyone else's mind, everyone has their opinion on the situation. Every opinion will be different.
"I focus on myself, I want to go to Qatar with Scotland and the players want to go as well so that is what I will focus on."
Asked if there was any disappointment that an ex-Scotland skipper would think that way, Clarke replied: "No anyone can have their own opinion."
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel