ROSS MCCRORIE has set his sights on a Scotland breakthrough this season as he looks to establish himself for club and country.

The midfielder was an important part of Steven Gerrard’s squad last term as he made 30 appearances for the Light Blues.

He returned to action at the Hummel Training Centre this week and will now try and earn a starting jersey in the opening matches of the new campaign.

Gers team-mate Ryan Jack missed out on the group for Steve Clarke’s first matches against Cyprus and Belgium and the former Under-19s skipper is keen to make his mark for Scotland in the coming months.

McCrorie said: “I am hoping this is the season that I can push for the national team. We will see.

“If I doesn’t happen this season, hopefully it happens at some point.

“My aim is to get in the national squad as quickly as possible and I need to do well for Rangers first and foremost.

“This is my last year at Under-21s so hopefully I can make that step up as soon as possible. It comes down to your club first, you have got to be playing well for people to take notice of you.

“Hopefully I can play plenty of games, keep my performances up and that call comes.

“It comes naturally when you are at a club like Rangers. The majority of the boys should be national team players. You see that in our squad now that we have a few internationalists and that shows you the quality of the team.

“I am sure Jacko would have been disappointed but there are a lot of quality players in the squad that are playing at a good level.

“I was a bit surprised for Jacko because he played really this season but he has just got to keep working away and performing and hopefully he gets noticed soon.”