STEVE CLARKE has insisted it doesn’t matter just what Czech side Scotland will face in Olomouc tomorrow evening after UEFA confirmed that the Nations League game will go ahead.
There was confusion over the status of the tie after the Czechs had claimed after their 3-1 win over Slovakia on Friday night that the Scotland game was off following a positive Covid-19 test by a member of their backroom squad.
By yesterday afternoon it was announced that the game will definitely be played but none of the squad who featured in Slovakia will be available against Scotland, essentially meaning that it could be a reserve side fielded against Clarke’s men.
“That's not really a concern for me,” said Clarke. “I'm just aiming to keep on trying to improve performances. Obviously we might not know quite as much about the personnel because we have prepared for a different squad of players. But the most important thing just now is that we concentrate on ourselves and what we can do.
“There was never any doubt in our head the game was going ahead.
“It’s about trying to improve that system if we go that way again and try to be better.”
Slavia Prague chairman Jaroslav Tvrdik had immediately said he’d withdraw all seven representatives of the Czech squad from his club in the light of the positive test but so far there has been no similar reaction from Scottish club teams ahead of today’s journey.
“I haven't heard anything, nobody's been in touch with me,” said Clarke. “I'm sure there have been a few calls into the relevant authorities but we've got good people looking after us, we're following all the relevant protocols.
“We've had assurances from UEFA that in the Czceh Republic the new boys and staff that are getting called up, everything will be tested properly and done correctly. We'll go there in a bubble and we don't need to come across anybody. I've had four Covid tests in the last twelve days. We're good to go and we take it at face value that everything's good on the other side.
“We're in the middle of a global pandemic and we have to do what we've been doing since the very start and that's react to certain situations. It would be unfair to go any further than that. We just have to react as best we can.”
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