SCOTLAND captain Rachel Corsie, who is expected to return to the side for tomorrow night's friendly against Wales, says a head coach needs to be appointed soon with World Cup qualifying looming.
“It will come round quickly,” the Kansas City central defender said of the opening Group B game against Hungary in September. The head coach position has still not been filled despite Shelley Kerr standing down on Christmas Eve.
“We obviously hope (a permanent head coach) will be confirmed as soon as possible. Everybody wants to know – the players, the press, the fans – we all want to have that security to know what is happening.
“Uncertainty is something that makes everyone feel uncomfortable. Hopefully that is something we can move on from soon.”
Scotland men's under-16 head coach Stuart McLaren was put in interim charge for February's final two Euro qualifiers, and has retained the position for the current double header of friendlies. The first, against Northern Ireland in Belfast on Thursday, resulted in a 1-0 win thanks to substitute Caroline Weir's late penalty.
Asked about McLaren's suitability for the job on a permanent basis, Corsie replied: “It's difficult as a player to be asked about management positions. We're not part of that process.
“The work that Stuart has come in and done has been positive and really refreshing. All the players have appreciated and enjoyed that.”
Corsie, along with Kim Little and Erin Cuthbert, didn't feature against Northern Ireland but should win cap No 123 against tougher opposition in Llanelli. The Wales side will include Jess Fishlock, who played on loan alongside Corsie at Glasgow City in 2013 and was also later a team-mate at Seattle Reign.
Reaching 123 caps will bring Corsie alongside Ifeoma Dieke, who was also a central defender, as the ninth most capped Scotland player of all time. She was a player the Aberdonian looked up to when she made her debut against France in 2009.
“When I first came into the squad Iffy was probably the only player at the time who played professionally,” Corsie pointed out. “It feels like something quite special if I'm going to reach the same number of caps as she got.”
The boot is now on the other foot, and Corsie said she felt like the old player when she sat beside Hibernian central defender Leah Eddie on the flight taking the squad from Belfast to Bristol. Eddie, who is 20, replaced another debutant – Rangers' Brianna Westrup – to win her first cap on Thursday.
“I'm more than a decade older than she is,” 31-year-old Corsie said. “That's a reminder of how old I'm getting, but it's great to see young players come in. Leah has had a tough time in the last couple of years with injury so it's great to see her bounce back.”
Recently named Hibs' player of the year, Eddie joins Billy Gilmour as having graduated from an SFA performance school and gone on to play for Scotland. She attended Graeme High School in Falkirk and – remarkably – has already recovered from two left knee ACL ruptures.
The first was when she was only 16, and the second happened in her first competitive game for Hibs after joining from Rangers. “I never had it in my head that my career was over, but it was mentally tough coming through it,” the defender admitted.
“Being the first woman to come through a performance school and make the A squad is a big achievement. Training with the boys and a couple of girls every single day at school for four years has developed me in a good way.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here