CELTIC midfielder Natalie Ross admits the chartered flight which will take Scotland to Cyprus for their final two Euro 2022 qualifiers today will be a totally new experience. The 31-year-old was accustomed to low budget travel and accommodation when she last played for her country.
By coincidence, her first Scotland game was also on the island – she came on as a substitute for the legendary Julie Fleeting in a Cyprus Cup 1-0 defeat to the Netherlands. That was in 2008, and although she got nine more caps that year, and another in 2009, she hasn't played for Scotland since.
Having dropped out of contention when Anna Signeul was in charge, Ross didn't feature under Shelley Kerr either. She admits she was hugely surprised when Celtic manager Fran Alonso tipped her off that new Scotland interim head coach Stuart McLaren was going to call her the next day.
“It was in a bit of shock,” she said of the subsequent call. “I couldn't really believe it and I wasn't allowed to tell anybody until the squad was announced. I'm doing well at Celtic, but I'm getting older and thought maybe the opportunity had passed.
“2009 is the last time I played for Scotland and I had quite a bad injury back then. There was talk over the years of getting back involved but that didn't materialise.”
Scotland's chances of qualifying for a third successive tournament ended after successive defeats to Finland (twice) and Portugal at the end of last year. Nine regular squad members are unavailable for the upcoming double-header, and as well as Ross, her team-mate Lisa Robertson has been called up.
The former Hibernian player was on the bench for a friendly against Serbia in 2013 but has never been capped and didn't feature in any of Kerr's squads.
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