AS the abject failures and agonising near misses that Scotland have suffered in qualifying campaigns since 1997 have shown, leading the national team through to the finals of a major tournament in the modern era has been far from easy.

Yet, the task of the hapless soul in charge is complicated ten fold when he is trying to do it amid an unprecedented global health crisis like the coronavirus pandemic.

Steve Clarke must have thought he had experienced just about everything that football can throw at a coach in the 22 years he has spent in the dugout as both an assistant and a manager.

Nothing the 57-year-old has been through in the game, though, has prepared him for what he has had to contend with ahead of Euro 2020 play-off semi-final against Israel at Hampden tonight.

“It’s been different, very different,” said Clarke. “You don’t get this on your pro-licence, that’s for sure. It ranks as the strangest build-up.”

Clarke has lost three of his most influential players, Stuart Armstrong, Ryan Christie and Kieran Tierney, for the most important game of his tenure due to a single positive Covid-19 test.

But the fact that Southampton midfielder Armstrong tested negative when he arrived in the Scotland camp on Monday and Christie and Tierney are only having to self-isolate due to the fact they were in close contact with their team mate make the unfortunate turn of events bizarre and galling.

“I heard the news early in the morning that Stuart had tested positive,” he said. “From then it was a continual update right throughout the day on how that affected the rest of the squad. We had to work out who Stuart had been in close contact with, with the NHS Track and Trace getting involved.

“They narrowed it down to the amount of time he had in each other’s company. And unfortunately that robbed us of another two players, as well as two members of staff (a physiotherapist and a masseur).

“The testing procedure is there. We all got tested when we first arrived on camp. For that one, Stuart tested negative, funnily enough. But the UEFA test was done on Tuesday and when the results came on this morning everyone was negative, except Stuart.

“That’s the nature of testing people and why we do it. From there the procedures kick in and Dr John MacLean (SFA doctor) and Graeme Jones (SFA head of high performance) are the people who kick into action. The NHS came in and found the distances and made their decisions from there.”

It is just as well that Clarke is a phlegmatic individual. Scotland faced a Czech Republic side that had been hastily cobbled together from journeymen professionals and youngsters after a coronavirus outbreak in the opposition camp last month. He knew it was a possibility.

“You could do everything you possibly could to prevent this,” he said. “But to keep the virus out of certain situations is impossible.

“I touched on this when we had our last game in the Czech Republic. I said then that we had to have some sympathy and feeling for their situation at that time because it could happen to any club or any international group at any time. And unfortunately at this moment in time it’s affected us.”

The former Chelsea, Liverpool and Newcastle United assistant is confident that Scotland, who will also be without Oliver Burke, Liam Cooper, James Forrest and Scott McKenna due to injury, that both he and his players will adapt to the developments and compete regardless.

“It’s a little hiccup in front of a big game,” he said. “Obviously today has been a little bit more difficult for me as the manager, to deal with certain situations. Players being players and players being human it’s probably been a little bit more difficult for them today.

“The good thing, with the way we work here, is that even though I shape up one team in the way I want to go and have the other players shaped up the way the opposition will be I’m always very mindful of the fact that the other players could be involved.

“I tell them to pay careful attention to any information they get. We try to spread the word right throughout the squad, rather than just the starting eleven. It could be a matter of keeping the same shape, it could be a matter of changing it.

“But we will wake up tomorrow morning and it’s match day. On match day professional footballers know what they have to do, they know they have to be ready. And everyone knows what’s happened doesn’t diminish the size and magnitude of the game so we will be ready to go when it comes to kick-off time and preparation will be as it always is for the game.”

Clarke remains confident Scotland can raise the morale of the population in a week that First Minister Nicol Sturgeon has introduced new lockdown restrictions due to an alarming rise in the number of people testing positive for coronavirus by beating Israel and progressing to a final against either Norway or Serbia away next month.

“I’m sure they will give everybody a lift if we get the right result,” he said. “I think the fact that the government are tightening the restrictions in the way they are tells you that nobody is immune from this situation and football certainly shouldn’t be immune from it. We are grateful to have the opportunity to play tomorrow night and hopefully put a smile on everyone’s face.”