Steve Clarke clears up Anthony Ralston Scotland situation after late right-back call

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Scotland are blessed with a strong selection of full-backs.

Celtic’s Kieran Tierney and Anthony Ralston are both in the rotation along with former Hoops man Greg Taylor.

But that is just the tip of the iceberg. Andy Robertson, Aaron Hickey, James Penrice, Nathan Patterson and Max Johnston are all among the highly-rated options available to Steve Clarke.

It isn’t a level of depth that exists elsewhere in Clarke’s squad, so he can’t take it for granted, as his last-minute right-back decision has shown.

Having not been included in the initial squad for the games, Johnston has now been added to Scotland’s camp, with no one dropping out. Speaking before their meeting with Greece, Clarke explained this decision.

Steve Clarke on decision to add extra right-back to Scotland squad

Ralston and Tierney had to withdraw from Clarke’s last Scotland selection, with injury concerns for both limiting their Celtic playing time.

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It’s therefore easy to worry about Ralston’s situation when seeing that Clarke has added another player in his position to the squad.

However, speaking ahead of back-to-back home qualifiers for the Tartan Army, Clarke was clear in explaining his decision.

He said: “Just to pad out the squad a little bit, obviously with two games Thursday and then Sunday.

“You always assume that you might pick up some kind of knock or niggle, so I just brought him in for that reason, that’s it.

“He’s ready to go. He was unlucky not to be in the initial squad anyway. I had a good chat with him on the phone, explained my reasons.

“He accepted them, obviously disappointed, but could understand why I’d made the changes with Aaron Hickey and Tony Ralston both being fit. So he’s back in the squad, and it’s good for Max. More experience.”

Celtic players in the Scotland set-up

Celtic youngster Ben McPherson is training with the Scotland squad after being brought back from the Under-21s. That’s another Celtic full-back in the fold.

McPherson is on loan in the Scottish Championship, along with Kyle Ure who is also in the Under-21s squad. Colby Donovan was handed a much-deserved call-up at that level too.

Findlay Hale and Sean McArdle have been called up to the Under-19s. The latter joined McPherson at Thistle last week.

Luke McCowan will be hoping to break into Clarke’s squad at some point – Callum McGregor’s retirement last year has helped pave the way, but he still faces stiff competition.