THE gathering storm over the withdrawal of Celtic's Barry Robson and Rangers quartet Barry Ferguson, Allan McGregor, Lee McCulloch and Christian Dailly from the Scotland squad ahead of the Croatia friendly is the sort of twister George Burley will be buffeted by as national manager.
A creditable 1-1 draw against top-drawer opposition in his first game in charge has been cast to the wind as Burley has been placed in an invidious position over suggestions Robson's knee injury could have healed in time for him to face the Croats
on Wednesday night.
The player was apparently keen to play but was told by Scotland doctor Stewart Hillis and physio John MacLean he was not fit. The Rangers players withdrawn from the squad all featured in yesterday's Old Firm game, but Ally McCoist, the club's assistant manager, was adamant all their injuries were genuine.
All that the Scotland manager could do this week to avoid whipping up further controversy over the call-offs was dismiss any notion that Hillis, MacLean or the Rangers players had not acted above board, or been encouraged to do so by their club. It is hardly unknown for managers to tell their charges to give meaningless internationals a miss during heavy club programmes but Burley maintains that is atypical.
"It is a wee bit disrespectful to the players," Burley said of the suspicions cast by the week's events. "These Celtic and Rangers players are desperate to play for their country and would not just call-off for the sake of it.
"As a manager I have never pulled a player out of an international squad and I am sure that 99% of managers don't do it. Walter (Smith] and Gordon (Strachan] sent me all the players for our medics to examine so I don't think you can do more than that as a manager. It is not as if any manager said: 'He's not going because I want to keep him'. The only one who didn't come to us was Christian Dailly because we knew he had cracked a bone (in his toe].
"As an international manager, players come to you and report to the physio and doctor and I'm not going to say the doctor's lying or he can't do his job. If they tell me he's not fit for the next game, he's not fit, it's as simple as that."
Yet, Burley believes it could be better for all concerned if the SPL avoided scheduling Old Firm games in the week of international dates already on the calendar.
"There is huge pressure on clubs and especially when it comes to Old Firm games," he said.
"These might decide the league and probably will this season. Anything that can take pressure away from the clubs, I'm all for that."
TOM ENGLISH, BACK PAGE
The full article contains 478 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
