Levein ponders Dixon debut against Serbs after running out of options at left-back

Chief football writer

Wednesday 5 September 2012

Craig Levein is considering whether to put the uncapped Paul Dixon straight into the Scotland team for the crucial opening World Cup qualifier against Serbia.

Paul Dixon is in line for his first Scotland start against Serbia

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Michael Grant

The 25-year-old Huddersfield Town player was called up for the opening double-header yesterday and injuries to two other left-backs could propel him straight into the first XI.

Dixon will be the only available left-back if Charlie Mulgrew has to withdraw from the squad to face Serbia and then Macedonia because of an Achilles problem. Mulgrew returned to Celtic for treatment yesterday and Levein is making contingency plans for having to do without him. He has already lost one left-back, Danny Fox, with the Southampton man pulling out injured yesterday. Right-back Russell Martin of Norwich City also withdrew and Dixon, who left Dundee United in the summer, and Gary MacKenzie, the MK Dons centre-back, were called up.

Every other No.3 Levein has used in his 20 games in charge – Steven Whittaker, Phil Bardsley and Stephen Crainey – is either injured or out of favour. The only other option would be to move Christophe Berra out of the centre.Neil Lennon, the manager of Celtic, had thought that would Mulgrew be fine for Scotland despite missing the game against Hibernian at the weekend. Mulgrew suffered the injury against Inverness Caledonian Thistle but played in their next game against Helsingborgs last midweek. "I thought he would have been okay but obviously there's still a problem there," said Lennon. "Charlie is one of those guys who wants to play."Meanwhile Scott Brown, is likely to miss at least three of the first four qualifiers. The Celtic captain is not in the squad for the first two games but Lennon revealed that the midfielder's hip problem makes it extremely difficult for him to play two games a week. That makes it unlikely that he would be ready to play against Wales and Belgium on October 12 and 16, although Levein may still want to use him in one of the games.Brown is not able to train fully and is combining light work with rest. He has a degenerative hip problem which may, ultimately, require corrective surgery."Will it be the same for the next Scotland double-header? I hope not," said Lennon. "But we have to see. This isn't a 'club versus country' thing: he wants to play for Scotland. He's disappointed to miss out on these games. But, for me, if he could have played the Serbia game there's no way he could have got through the Macedonia game. It would have been impossible. That's where we are with him."We'll have to sit down and talk about it. We have seven games in 23 days when we start back [after the international break] and Scott won't play in the majority of those. It's not career-threatening but it's something we want to avoid at this time, in terms of the surgery. The physio is telling me he just needs rest. We need to take it game by game, and week by week."Amid the gloom, some good news came with confirmation that Darren Fletcher has been included in Manchester United's 25-man Champions League squad. The Scotland captain took an indefinite break nine months ago after it emerged he had been suffering from a chronic bowel condition.

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Levein ponders Dixon debut against Serbs after running out of options at left-back

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