THE long wait may be almost over.

The bear's sore head might be about to lift. Charlie Adam's international exile, which just a few short weeks ago he euphemistically called "a bit frustrating", could be brought to an end on Friday with selection for Scotland against Qatar.

It was at the start of last month, in these pages, that the Stoke midfielder declared: "I'm like a bear with a sore head when I'm not playing."

He was referring to exclusion at club level as much as from his country's squad, as the early part of the season saw him flit in and out of the Stoke side. Latterly, though, he was a first-team regular, and now, for the first time since last year's friendly against Poland, he is back in Gordon Strachan's squad.

Even if he plays in Friday's friendly at Easter Road there is no guarantee he will be involved in the match that matters, the European Championship Group D game against the Republic of Ireland next week. But there is no disguising his pleasure at being on the international scene once more.

"It's been a long time, so it's good to be back involved," Adam said yesterday. "My form at the end of the season obviously put me into a good position and I'm looking forward to being a part of things.

"I always had faith I'd get back in, but I had to be playing. It was obviously going to be difficult during that period I wasn't playing at Stoke.

"I'm the same player I was three years ago. You've just got to be playing games and when you get on a run of scoring goals and playing well you get noticed."

Any such talk of Adam scoring goals and playing well inevitably brings to mind his wonder strike against Chelsea in April from inside his own half. He would never try to disown such an inventive goal, but is loath to see it as uniquely worthy of praise, even if it did do his profile no end of good.

"I wouldn't say that goal has got me back into the national team," he insisted. "I've scored another five or six before the end of the season.

"It's not changed my life, I'll tell you that. Nothing has changed. I'm the type of player who thinks 'That's gone now'.

"You know, I'm happier scoring a six-yarder as one from 60, 70 yards. It doesn't matter, and just scoring any goal gives you a great feeling as a player.

"Fortunately enough for me, it happened against one of the best teams in the country on Sky, and that was why there was such a lot of media attention. It was one of those things that happened, and I was delighted that it was me that scored it.

"I'm the kind of player, though, who sees it as gone now and I'm looking to the future.

"The next goal for me is trying to get a game against Qatar - and getting in for the Ireland game. Because, at the end of the day, these ten days are key for us.

"We have a friendly, which will be a good game for us to play. But the most important game is obviously in Ireland. If we can get a result there it would keep us in a good position, pushing for qualification. That is the main focus."

The home win against the Republic of Ireland last November may have been the most important game thus far in Scotland's Group D campaign, but for Adam every game he had to sit out was an important one, albeit for negative reasons. "I missed every game. Germany away was definitely one I wanted to play in," he admitted.

"With every squad that was announced, I was disappointed I wasn't in, because I want to be part of this. I've said before that, come next summer when we have qualified, it would be hard sitting on the couch watching the games.

"I want to be part of it and want to be in the squad. I can only do that by being here and performing well in games."

So will Adam be given the chance at Easter Road to play himself into contention for a place in the crucial qualifier across the Irish Sea? Assistant manager Mark McGhee suggested that was a distinct possibility.

"Charlie is not here just to make up the numbers," McGhee said yesterday. "He's here to prove to us he should start against the Republic.

"He had a terrific end to the season. We couldn't ignore that.

"Given he has just come into the squad, and that we talk about 'automatic starters', then at this moment in time Charlie wouldn't be thinking he is an automatic starter. Therefore he comes into that category of players aiming to put themselves in the manager's eye-line and come in for consideration to start."