Steve Clarke has revealed SFA chief Ian Maxwell told him Scotland 's Euro 2020 play off with Israel in March wouldn't be affected by coronavirus.
The national team boss was informed there was "an outside chance" the game would be moved behind closed doors.
The fixture fell victim to the pandemic as Scottish football went into complete shutdown shortly after and has now been rescheduled for October.
Premiership clubs are only now edging towards a tentative training return following the worldwide devastation caused by Covid-19.
But Clarke insists he was told not to worry at the time.
He told BT Sport: "I was just getting to grips with the period of time that you get with international football as opposed to club football.
"The last time I looked after a squad of players was November, which is a long time. We really prepared quite thoroughly for the Nations League play-off game in March.
"A couple of weeks before that, I remember sending a text to Ian Maxwell, my boss at the SFA, saying: 'Do you think the game will be affected by this virus?'
"His reply was: 'No, outside chance it'll be behind closed doors'.
"So you go from that to thinking 'what's next?'.
"The game was moved, provisionally, to June but you knew by that stage it wasn't going to happen.
"It's dragged on and on over months. I've got to say, my garden looks lovely now."
