STEVE Clarke last night called on UEFA to push back international fixtures in future after Scotland’s preparations for their Qatar 2022 qualifier against Denmark were hit by further call-offs.
Right back Stephen O’Donnell and striker Kevin Nisbet have both been ruled out of the Group F match in the Parken Stadum in Copenhagen this evening.
Motherwell player O’Donnell has been suffering from coronavirus and is not allowed to enter Denmark because of their strict travel restrictions.
Meanwhile, Hibernian forward Nisbet suffered a minor injury in training and is expected to be available for the match against Moldova on Saturday.
However, Clarke has been unable to draft in late replacements due to UEFA Covid-19 testing requirements and his original 26 man squad has been reduced to 19.
In addition, both Ryan Christie of Celtic and Jack Hendry of Oostende were the subject of bids before of the close of the summer transfer window last night and joined Bournemouth and Club Brugge respectively.
The national manager has urged European football’s governing body to look at when they schedule international matches going forward.
“It’s definitely been the most disruptive week going into a camp,” he said. “I don’t want to sound like a Moaning Minnie, but I think UEFA need to have a little look at it and see if we can separate the international window from the end of the European or world transfer window. Give us a little bit more time if they are going to play games.
“One of the biggest issues in terms of getting players and getting replacements into the squad was the timescale between getting the squad together on Sunday night and the game being on the Wednesday.
“If the game had been on the Thursday, that extra 24 hours is absolutely invaluable in terms of re-adjusting your squad a little bit. So there’s a little bit of help that could be had from the authorities in terms of scheduling.”
Clarke is confident that neither Christie or Hendry, who could both start for Scotland against Euro 2020 semi-finalist Denmark, will be affected by the uncertainty over their futures.
“It’s in the background,” he said. “But for someone like Jack, it was a positive, so he’s not going to be down about it. He is going to be excited and delighted if a move comes off and he’ll come in a more positive frame of mind.
“But I think people scheduling the fixtures need to have a little think about when the transfer window deadline is and try to separate it a little from the internationals, especially on top of the Covid issues and then you get your normal injury issues. We’ve been hit by all three going into this camp.”
Clarke now has no specialist right backs in his Scotland squad as Rangers defender Nathan Patterson is currently self-isolating and will only join up with the national squad on Thursday.
But he is confident the national team can cope with the absence of both O’Donnell and Patterson and get a result in Copenhagen.
“I’ve got Ryan Fraser,” he said. “He’s played right wing-back many times for his club, mainly Bournemouth. He’s played there for me before against the Faroe Islands. He scored a back-post header, so I have got options.
“Kieran Tierney has played on the right before. That would be a more emergency measure, so I’ve got some options. Whether I go with the five or the four, I’ll probably sleep on that one.”
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