Three Celtic stars named in first Scotland squad since Callum quit

Steve Clarke has named his Scotland squad for next month’s UEFA Nations League matches against Poland and Portugal. Remember, Scotland got promoted to the top tier, passing related England on the way down!

There’s no place for Callum McGregor after the Celtic captain made the difficult, but correct decision to call time on his international career after Euro2024 to concentrate on demanding role leading the Celtic team.

James Forrest hasn’t followed the same path as his captain and close friend, and is included in the Scotland squad, despite not getting any game-time at all in Germany in the summer. The same applies to Greg Taylor who always shows up for the national squad when selected.

The only Celt who played in Germany and is named in today’s squad is Anthony Ralston, who had an eventful time in Germany with a costly mistake made against Switzerland – what a goal that was – and that was followed by a superb recovery from Ralston who is essentially a squad player for club and country.

There are three former Celtic players named in the squad announced this morning, they are Ryan Christie (Bournemouth), Ben Doak (Liverpool) and Lewis Morgan (New York Red Bulls). There are also a number of uncapped players but no place for Stuart Armstrong who is still without a club after leaving Southampton in the summer.

Scotland are at home to Poland on Thursday 5 September at Hampden Park before travelling to Lisbon to take on Portugal at the Estadio Do SL Benfica on Sunday 8 September.