Steve Clarke will make a last minute cap call on Leigh Griffiths with Celtic getting the final say on a potential Scotland return.
The Dark Blues boss names his squad for the upcoming Euro 2020 qualifiers against Russia and Belgium at lunchtime on Tuesday with a major question mark hanging over the inclusion of the Hoops striker.
Record Sport understands there will be a place for Rangers midfielder Ryan Jack but Clarke is awaiting a green light from Celtic over Griffiths who’s dropped down the pecking order under Neil Lennon.
The 29-year-old last appeared in a Scotland shirt in a Nations League clash against Albania last September before taking six months out to address personal issues after withdrawing from Alex McLeish’s squad for a double header against Israel and Portugal.
Despite making a successful first team return, he’s been forced to play second fiddle to Odsonne Edouard and now appears to have been overtaken by new Hoops hero Vakoun Bayo who bagged a weekend double against Hearts.
Griffiths was restricted to just 12 minutes at the end of the win over the Jambos and played from the start in a Reserve Cup for Celtic against Dundee where he scored in a 4-2 victory.
The striker’s last started a league game for Celtic against Motherwell earlier in August and was also selected form the start in the cup game against Dunfermline and Clarke will be guided by the champions over whether the player is ready for selection for his country.
Meanwhile Russia will unleash Zenit St Petersburg goal machine Artem Dzyuba against Scotland in next month’s Euro 2020 qualifier at Hampden.
The 31-year-old international skipper has five goals to his name in this qualifying campaign and has been included in a 26 man squad.
Dzyuba bagged four goals in Russia’s 9-0 thrashing of San Marino, and was also on target in the 4-0 victory over Kazakhstan five months ago and boss Stanislav Cherchesov has also named Valencia winger Denis Cheryshev, who has netted three times during the Group I.
Dzyuba's scoring tally in these qualifiers is bettered only by Israel’s Eran Zahavy, who had scored seven in qualifying so far but the free-scoring Russians have amassed 15 goals in total, the highest of any country,
They currently sit second in the table, three points ahead of Clarke’s side.
