Scotland manager Alex McLeish insists there is “nothing sinister” in Tom Cairney’s absence from his latest squad.
Reports recently claimed England manager Gareth Southgate was keen to call up the Nottingham-born midfielder, who is yet to make his competitive debut for his father’s native country.
The Fulham midfielder returned from an ankle injury, which saw him withdraw from the previous international double header, as a 64th-minute substitute in his team’s 3-0 defeat by Everton on Saturday.
But he was not named in McLeish’s 23-man squad for the Nations League clash with Israel on October 11 and a home friendly against Portugal three days later.
McLeish said: “We contacted Fulham last week and at that moment they said Tom wasn’t going to be available. So we went along Fulham’s lines and for that reason we didn’t include Tom.
“But he only played for 20 minutes and he’s obviously missed a few weeks. It’s nothing sinister, it was more the dialogue we had with Fulham.
“Whenever we have had Tom Cairney in the squad, he has integrated in the group brilliantly and we would expect him to prolong his Scottish career.”
This post was last modified on 02/10/2018