\n<\/p>\n
Teenage Kilmarnock winger Findlay Curtis is a surprise inclusion in Steve Clarke’s Scotland squad for two friendly matches later this month.<\/b><\/p>\n
Curtis, 19, joined Kilmarnock on loan from Rangers in January having played 26 times in an impressive first half of the campaign at Ibrox.<\/p>\n
With Bournemouth’s Ben Gannon-Doak just back from injury and Scotland lacking depth in wide attacking areas, Curtis has been given his first chance to impress as Clarke prepares to lead Scotland at the World Cup finals in June.<\/p>\n
Scotland host Japan at Hampden on Saturday 28 March before taking on Ivory Coast at Everton’s Hill Dickinson Stadium on Tuesday 31 March.<\/p>\n
“He came into the Rangers team and I liked him and I thought he was quick, direct and tries to make things happen,” Scotland head coach Steve Clarke said of Curtis.<\/p>\n
“I’ve watched him a little bit on video, and went to watch him live at the weekend [against Hearts] and I thought he was decent.<\/p>\n
“He is another young one. Everybody keeps going on about me, I don’t evolve or change the squad. But there is a natural evolution to any group of players. <\/p>\n
“I’ve always tried to introduce young players when I feel it is the right time to introduce them. Findlay fits into that category at this moment in time.”<\/p>\n
Wrexham centre-back Dominic Hyam and Middlesbrough striker Tommy Conway have also been recalled to join an otherwise settled squad.<\/p>\n
Everton right-back Nathan Patterson is also included having played no part in Scotland’s successful World Cup qualifying campaign in the autumn because of injury.<\/p>\n
Napoli’s Billy Gilmour is back after missing the last camp through injury, while his club team-mate Scott McTominay and Aston Villa’s John McGinn are both in as expected after recently returning to action.<\/p>\n
Gannon-Doak, a key part of Scotland ending a 28-year wait to reach a men’s World Cup finals, made his return to the Bournemouth squad on Saturday but has been left out by Clarke while he aims to return to full fitness.<\/p>\n
Hearts striker Lawrence Shankland also misses out as he nears a return for his club, and Aaron Hickey is sidelined too.<\/p>\n
There is no place for Hellas Verona striker Kieron Bowie following his January switch from Hibernian.<\/p>\n
Falkirk’s Scott Bain is the only goalkeeper included currently playing regularly, with Angus Gunn and Liam Kelly second choice at Nottingham Forest and Rangers respectively.<\/p>\n
Craig Gordon, who took over from Gunn for the crucial qualifiers against Greece and Denmark, is out with a shoulder problem.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Teenage Kilmarnock winger Findlay Curtis is a surprise inclusion in Steve Clarke’s Scotland squad for two friendly matches later this month. Curtis, 19, joined Kilmarnock on loan from Rangers in January having played 26 times in an impressive first half of the campaign at Ibrox. With Bournemouth’s Ben Gannon-Doak just back from injury and Scotland<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10720,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}