CHARLIE MULGREW had reason to fear his international career was over when Blackburn Rovers slipped into League One this season. Instead, the 31-year-old finds himself more integral to the hopes of the national team than ever. The main question, at least until after his participation in the Ewood Park side's league meeting with Gillingham is over, is not whether he is going to play in Scotland's make-or-break double header against Slovakia and Slovenia next week. It is what position he is going to play.
Part of an unlikely central defensive partnership with Christophe Berra of Hearts, Mulgrew has been hugely influential as Scotland have picked up momentum late on in this Group F campaign. The sudden unavailability of Scott Brown and Stuart Armstrong presents Gordon Strachan with a dilemma – does he keep that defensive unit intact, or one of the few men in the squad with experience of that specialist defensive midfield role, opt to use him in midfield instead. The last time he played that role was a narrow 2-1 defeat against Manchester United in last season's FA Cup.
“Of course I was concerned [about my international place when Blackburn were relegated] but there’s nothing you can do about that, you just have to get on with it, work hard and do your best," said Mulgrew, capped 29 times for his country. "But Gordon’s always been good at keeping in touch, whether it's been when I've had an injury or anything like that, so I knew if there was any issue he would call me. You just hope you get the chance to prove you deserve to be there.
"I've enjoyed the last couple of games but that still doesn't mean I'm going to start the next one," he added. "The manager treats every game differently and I'll need to go there and work hard again. I enjoyed playing with Christophe and I don't think playing in League One will affect me that much. When the first squad was announced I was in it and hopefully I had done enough in previous squads to keep me there.
“Each time I’ve gone away, no matter which club I've been at or league I've been in, I've always worked hard to show how desperate I am to play, because no-one’s guaranteed a spot. I’m desperate to be involved with Scotland, I always am – I love playing for my country and whenever I get a call-up I'm excited to go and hopefully be involved."
Six points against Slovakia and Slovenia would almost certainly be sufficient for a play-off place and Mulgrew sees no reason to be pessimistic as the Scots chase their first major finals appearance since 1998.
“We can't afford not to believe, we have to go right to the end," Mulgrew said. "As long as it's possible, we’ll keep trying to pick up points. We fancy ourselves against anyone right now, to be fair. The manager has us well drilled going into every game and there’s no stone unturned in our preparation. We’ve taken points in the last four games and although we’ve achieved nothing yet, we’ll go into these games well prepared and confident we can pick up what we need."
"It has been a long time since we qualified but we need to play the game, not the occasion. It’s easy to get sucked in and over think it and that can work against you sometimes, so you can only take each game as it comes We know how much it means to everyone but we need to keep cool heads.
"If you'd offered it to us at the start of the campaign, that we had two games – albeit difficult ones – to get to the play-offs and we had it in our hands, I'm sure we’d have taken it. We know what we have to do and we’ll all be pushing to get it done."
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