STEVE Clarke last night insisted that Scotland’s players have all adhered to strict Covid-19 protocols at Euro 2020 after Billy Gilmour was ruled out of the final Group D match against Croatia.
Clarke was devasted when he was told early yesterday morning that Gilmour, who was named Man of the Match after the 0-0 draw with England at Wembley on Friday night, had tested positive and would have to self-isolate for 10 days.
The national manager revealed the 20-year-old midfielder, who was set to start at Hampden this evening, had been “very upset” when the news was broken to him at their base in the north-east of England.
The English FA last night announced that Ben Chilwell and Mason Mount, who play with Gilmour at Chelsea, had been ordered to quarantine after coming into close contact with their club mate after the final whistle.
Scotland captain Andy Robertson yesterday deleted an Instagram video of him playing table tennis with Gilmour and John McGinn at the Scotland team hotel on Sunday night.
But the other 25 players in the national squad have all returned negative lateral flow tests and the Scottish FA have not identified any close contacts after liaising with Public Health England.
Clarke, whose team need to beat Russia 2018 finalists Croatia tonight in order to qualify for the last 16, stressed that guidelines had been followed to the letter throughout the tournament.
Asked how Gilmour had caught the virus, he said: “We have no idea and there’s no way in the world that I can get involved in any speculation about that.
“I’ve got quite a big game to think about tomorrow and now, obviously, I’ve got to make a change to the team I had in my mind.
“Billy was going to start as you would imagine after the way he played against England. So I have a change I need to mull over and think about.
“Hopefully I’ll come up with the right solution for the game tomorrow. But the whys and wherefores regarding how he caught it? That’s not up to me.”
Clarke added: “But we follow all the protocols. We wear our masks at the right time, we wash our hands all the time and have bottles of sanitiser around the place.
“We do everything we can within the context of a global pandemic and a virus that you can’t see.
“People all over the world have caught this virus so it’s not something you can legislate for. What I don’t want to do is sit here and talk about catching Covid. I want to talk about playing Croatia.”
Asked if Scotland needed to tighten up their coronavirus procedures, Clarke said: “Well hopefully we need to tighten them up for the next week because that means we’re still involved in the tournament.”
Clarke, whose Scotland team are bidding to reach the knockout rounds of a major tournament for the first time in their history, confessed that he felt sorry for Gilmour, who is showing no Covid symptoms.
“We were tested yesterday as normal ahead of the game and I was given the news about ten to seven this morning,” he said.
“First and foremost I’m upset for Billy. The doc (John MacLean) and Graeme Jones (head of high performance) had to have a very difficult conversation with him when the test came back positive.
“I obviously spoke with him as well and, as you’d expect, he’s very upset. But it’s just the times we are in. You have to adapt and deal with it and that’s what we’ll do.”
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