Steve Clarke insists he will get tough with Scotland’s refuseniks if they don’t turn up for duty when the nation needs them most.
Clarke has declined to invoke the five day rule on the raft of big names who were declared unavailable for selection for Saturday’s win over Cyprus and tonight’s final Group I qualifier against Kazakhstan at Hampden.
But the manager issued a warning last night that he may not be so generous if he’s left in the lurch when Scotland go into the crucial Euro 2020 play-offs next March.
He said: “It becomes a case of not wanting to cut off your nose to spite your face. You have to be in a position where you can get your best players, you don’t want to cause upset between players, clubs and international managers.
“So I also have to take it at face value that every call-off is an injury call-off. The only one which was for personal reasons this time was Matt Phillips. Everyone else was flagged up as an injury by their club.
“Of course you don’t want to harm the relationship between players and their clubs. It’s easy to say ‘invoke the five day rule’ - but I’m not sure there are any winners when you do that.
“It puts the player in a difficult position - that’s probably the best way to put it.
“But as you probably noticed from my short time at Kilmarnock , I don’t mind a fight if I have to have a fight, as long as it’s a fight for the right reason.
“If I do have to have a fight, I’ll face it head on. I don’t shirk away from it. I don’t think I’m a soft character. If I need to be strong, I’ll be strong. But, for the moment, I don’t see any value in it.
“When we talk about March, I am sure that the squad I pick in March – injuries permitting – everyone will turn up.”
Clarke is also hoping for backing from league bosses after asking SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell to request a clear Sunday schedule ahead of a potential play-off semi final against Bulgaria or Israel.
But he accepts that his plan will have to be kicked into touch if both Celtic and Rangers are still competing in the Europa League.
And he said: “All we are asking for is for a little bit of common sense to come in on that weekend.
“The flip side of that is that I don’t want Rangers or Celtic to get knocked out of the Europa League before then. If they are playing on the Thursday night the previous week, then there’s nothing we can do about that.
“So you have to respect all sides. It’s probably something to speak more about after this game. It’s better to concentrate on the game on Tuesday night.
“Maybe for a lot of people, it’s not an important game. But, for us, it’s very important. We want to play well and we want to win.
“I am here for every match, every match for your country is important. These boys are representing their country, they are getting another cap,
“it is another game for me as international manager. I want my record as international manager to be better than it is, three wins, four defeats is no good to me. I want to have more wins than defeats. That is how I am looking at it.”
