Scotland have been given a World Cup scare after a stomach upset ruled key midfielder Scott McTominay out of training.
The Scots fly to Boston to finalise preparations for Saturday’s opening Group C game against Haiti tomorrow afternoon.
And McTominay will make the journey despite waking up unwell and missing a squad session in baking hot temperatures due to a problem believed to be attributable to something he ate rather than a bug likely to spread to other players
A significant figure for the national team, Norwich midfielder Kenny McLean, believes that the Napoli star will be fit for kick-off in the Boston Stadium in the early hours of Sunday morning.
“I am sure everybody has fingers crossed that Scott will be fine and I’m sure he will be," he said. “Everybody knows what Scotty brings. It is quite apparent how big a player he is for us.
“For all that it has been a team effort, and always will be a real team effort, but we have special special players at the core. He is obviously desperate to play and his preparations have been amazing apart from maybe something he has eaten somewhere along the line.
“But he is up on a mural for a reason. He is a true talent, a special player, an amazing guy and an amazing part of the team. He is a big character around the place but it is a team effort and I’m sure Scotty would be the first to say that.”
McLean sealed Scotland’s place at the World Cup finals with an iconic goal from the halfway line against Denmark in November. Steve Clarke and his players have no plans to stop there after spending the last eleven days in the United States acclimatising to conditions and beating Bolivia 4-0 in the final warm-up game.
“We want to make history,” said McLean. “We want to do more. There is more to come, I believe that and we believe that.
“Preparations have been amazing, could not have gone any better. And we here to maximise the opportunity that we have.
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"That’s what we have been doing for the last couple of weeks. It has been a really good build up, a good couple of games.
“We fly up to Boston today and we are as prepared as we could be. There is a lot of expectation, we put a lot of expectation on ourselves going into every game and we want to go out there and win the game. We have the squad, we have the players that can do that.”
Mentally, the 34-year-old feels the squad are in a positive frame of mind ahead of a game against Haiti which will be hugely consequential to hopes of securing a place in the last 32, potentially as one of the best third place group finishers.
He said: “There have been a couple of issues in the last couple of weeks, but I think that is pretty well known. Especially after long seasons.
“I think the position we found ourselves in, we are fortunate that we have looked after ourselves as well as we could and we are as ready as we can be. Minutes were spread out over the couple of games and I think everybody is in great shape.
“The training has been amazing when it has to be. Intense when it has to be and we cannot complain about the preparations at all. The experience is amazing and it’s about maximising the opportunity that we have.
“Every time I see someone sitting up here they talk about how good it is being away with this group of lads. It’s obviously incredible and we are very fortunate to have the squad, the staff and everybody in place that we do.
“We came here to maximise that, appreciate it and enjoy what we have. We are here to take care of business.”
