CALLUM McGregor has welcomed the sudden emergence of Billy Gilmour as a serious contender for a Scotland midfield berth and predicted the gifted Chelsea youngster’s presence in the national set-up can help secure a place at the Euro 2020 finals next summer.

Gilmour was tipped to receive a call-up to Steve Clarke’s squad for the play-off semi-final against Israel at Hampden in March before the coronavirus crisis caused that eagerly-anticipated match to be postponed and football shut down indefinitely.

The former Rangers kid had been the talk of English football at the time after performing superbly for the Stamford Bridge club in matches against Liverpool and Everton.

McGregor, who has been a regular starter for his country throughout this qualifying campaign, has no doubts the teenager is capable of making the step up to the international game in the near future and feels he will help to ensure high standards in both training and matches when he finally does so.

"Billy has been outstanding since coming on the scene,” he said. "I watched the Chelsea games he played and looks a really good, technical footballer. He likes to pass and receive the ball. He always plays forward and shows really good game intelligence for someone so young.

"It's great for Scotland to be producing players who can go and play in the Premier League at 18. It can only benefit the squad and the country in the future. As a squad, you always welcome good players.

"I always say that at Celtic too - the more competition the better. It brings the best out of everyone. The standard in training and games goes up.”

Clarke may have had a distinct shortage of top class central defenders to call on and had few prolific scorers to field up front in the Euro 2020 qualifiers that he took charge of after succeeding Alex McLeish as Scotland manager last year.

In central midfield, though, he has an abundance of quality personnel with Stuart Armstrong, Ryan Christie, John Fleck, Ryan Jack, Kenny McLean, John McGinn, McGregor and Scott McTominay all capable of slotting in there.

The Celtic man, however, knows that Clarke will welcome having another option and feels each of his compatriots have different strengths which the former Chelsea full-back can utilise.

"Billy is another midfielder to add to the Scotland mix and we do have a lot of strength in that area,” he said. “The manager has options he can use in different scenarios. He has played Ryan Christie off the side at times to get him in the game and the more quality players, the better it is.

"We have a massive amount of talent in the midfield area and it's all about finding that right balance. There will be different combinations for certain challenges and that is a bonus for the manager."

The 18-times capped player was bitterly disappointed when the Euro 2020 play-off semi-final with Israel was called off due to the Covid-19 outbreak as he was feeling confident about Scotland’s chances of winning and progressing to a decider against either Norway or Serbia away.

McGregor and his team mates may have been unable to clinch automatic qualification thought Group I, but they rounded off their campaign in fine style with three consecutive wins over San Marino, Cyprus and Kazakhstan to finish third behind Belgium and Russia.

However, the 26-year-old is pleased that UEFA have pushed the finals back to next summer and is determined to help the national team reach their first major tournament since France ’98 after competitive football starts back up again.

"We were all building up to the March games,” he said. “The semi-final with Israel and then hopefully the final. You could start to feel things building. In your own mind, you knew it was around the corner. They are two massive games for the country and like the club games, we are gutted they were called off.

"But they have now just been pushed further back in the calendar and hopefully we will be ready for them. We are all desperate to play Israel and then hopefully win the final to get to that major tournament.

"It was frustrating for the play-offs to be cancelled, but at least the Euros has been pushed back. We are close and we would have been gutted if the tournament had been totally scrapped. We still have that chance reach the finals. We just need to refocus our minds and put that to one side for now.

"We will be ready for Israel whenever the time comes on because we have already done a lot of work behind the scenes. The manager had been preparing for the tie and was trying to get us little clips so we could frame it in our minds.

"The good thing is we haven't lost the opportunity to get to the finals. It would have been so frustrating if the tournament couldn't be put back a year. By the time the game does come around, I know we will be prepared and ready for it.”