Steve Clarke has expressed his frustration after being forced to leave Arsenal left-back Kieran Tierney out of his Scotland squad.
The squad to take on Cyprus and Kazakhstan has been announced but there is no room for Gunners man Tierney.
Clarke hasn’t selected Arsenal full-back Tierney this time around. (Photo by Paul Harding – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)
Clarke says the reason for this is because Arsenal said they didn’t want him involved.
He told the Daily Mail: “Kieran has got an ongoing issue that Arsenal are keen to address in the next international break and Arsenal asked us not to select him.
“It’s a little bit frustrating. It’s obviously frustrating for Kieran as well, but we’ve got good cover in that position.”
Tierney will now go one year without a Scotland game
Tierney hasn’t featured for Scotland since March. Now that he won’t feature in the November internationals, by the time the next round of Scotland games come around, he won’t have featured for a year in Scotland colours.
Tierney isn’t featuring for Scotland right now. (Photo by David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
It’s ‘frustrating’ for Clarke as he is now playing for Arsenal after overcoming his injury problems. He has started four games for Unai Emery’s side this term.
A good thing for Clarke is that Scotland can cope with Tierney’s exclusion. Andy Robertson is the Scotland captain in that position whilst Greg Taylor is reliable cover.
The Scotland boss doesn’t seem too happy with not being able to select Tierney though.