Steve Clarke has called Steven Naismith back into the Scotland set up as Covid and injury issues ripped through the camp ahead of the trip to Denmark.
The national coach has lost John McGinn and Nathan Patterson for Wednesday's clash in Copenhagen due to the pandemic, and is also sweating on Kevin Nisbet ’s availability.
It’s emerged the Hibernian striker is the latest doubt ahead of Wednesday’s Parken clash.
A decision on whether the 23-year-old striker, who scored against Livingston at the weekend, travels to Copenhagen will be made on Tuesday morning.
SFA chiefs are hopeful he will be available for action against Moldova and Austria.
Clake’s coaching staff has also been affected with new recruit Austin MacPhee having to miss the triple-header which also includes games against Moldova and Austria due to Covid.
Naismith, who won 51 caps as a player, now joins the boss, John Carver and keeper coach Chris Woods in the coaching set-up.
Clarke said: “Austin tested positive at the weekend, so John and myself have called Steven up to give me another pair of eyes on the training pitch.
“It is just a short-term fix to cover for the loss of Austin.
“Austin is out for the three games. He is in isolation. He will join up with us in October.
“Covid is affecting us everywhere. Even on the coaching staff.”
To pile problems onto the gaffer, Celtic duo James Forrest and Greg Taylor are confirmed as missing the trio of Group F games through injury.
Clarke is already without Manchester United’s Scott McTominay and Southampton’s Stuart Armstrong with knocks.
But, with McGinn and Patterson due to exit isolation and join the squad after Copenhagen, Clarke has decided against making additions.
He said: “I decided not to, mainly because we had a really short time scale to get them here and have them Covid-tested before we fly to Denmark.
“I’m happy with the squad as it is. We have enough to cover all the positions.
“We’ll be a bit light, but Nathan and John will be able to join us on Thursday, which is a plus.
“The information I have is that they will end their isolation on Wednesday and meet us here for training the following morning.
“Stephen O’Donnell has missed a few games for Motherwell through illness, but he’s good to go.
“There’s enough cover within the squad at right-back. I’ve used Ryan Fraser in that position before and both Kieran Tierney and Andy Robertson have also played on the right. We’re well covered for that one game.”
Clarke will have Billy Gilmour back after the kid missed the last game of the Euros against Croatia with Covid and Norwich colleague Kenny McLean also returns.
He said: “It’s good to see Billy playing regularly. When he played for us against England he was fresh and his legs were good for 65-70 minutes and then they fell off a little bit.
“Going into this game, he’s had a full pre-season with Norwich and he’s played for the majority of the minutes.
“He’s a great addition in midfield and it’s also good to have Kenny back after he missed the Euros through injury.
“Having lost Scott and Stuart from that area, it’s nice to have got at least one person back in.
“I can tweak the system slightly to overcome John’s absence. You always have to be flexible.
“Normally you have very little time to prepare on the pitch. This time we have absolutely no time. It is basically just recovery and then ready to go.
“The good news is we had four weeks together in the summer, so everything we told them will be relative to this game. We will show them a lot in the videos, that will help for the game.
“We can tweak within the system for the home game and the away games.
“The main aim is to come out the other side of this week with a realistic aim of still being able to qualify for the World Cup in Qatar 2022.”
