Yahoo News Dumfries defender and former Queen of the South striker in provisional Scotland Euro 2024 squad
Scotland boss Steve Clarke named two men with local links in his squad for this summer’s European Championships.
Former Queen of the South front man Lyndon Dykes and ex-Dumfries Academy pupil Grant Hanley are included in the 28-man player pool, which will be trimmed to 26 by June 7.
The tournament kicks off on June 14 with Scotland facing a crunch opener against hosts Germany as they bid to progress from Group A.
Clarke named Hanley despite an injury plagued season which saw the Norwich City defender stuck on the bench for their recent play off semi-final against Leeds.
He said: “With the injuries and going up from 23 to 26, it actually made it a little bit difficult - how to get the right balance and personnel.
“The ones who don’t play and don’t get minutes are just as important as the ones who play.
“They control the harmony. It can be a big ask for people to tell professional players they’ll have four, five hopefully six weeks without minutes.
“More than a third of the squad will have games and minutes before we meet up.
“There are five or six players we have a little bit of doubt about.
“Let’s see how it pans out, but there will be two very difficult conversations.”
Scotland warm up with friendlies against Gibraltar and Finland before opening the tournament and their other Group A opponents are Switzerland and Hungary.
They have lost Aaron Hickey, Nathan Patterson and Lewis Ferguson to injuries,
The full squad is: goalkeepers: Zander Clark (Heart of Midlothian), Craig Gordon (Heart of Midlothian), Angus Gunn (Norwich City), Liam Kelly (Motherwell).
Defenders: Liam Cooper (Leeds United), Grant Hanley (Norwich City), Jack Hendry (Al-Ettifaq), Ross McCrorie (Bristol City), Scott McKenna (Nottingham Forrest), Ryan Porteous (Watford), Anthony Ralston (Celtic), Andy Robertson (Liverpool), John Souttar (Rangers), Greg Taylor (Celtic), Kieran Tierney (Arsenal).
Midfielders: Stuart Armstrong (Southampton), Ryan Christie (Bournemouth), Billy Gilmour (Brighton), John McGinn (Aston Villa), Callum McGregor (Celtic), Kenny McLean (Norwich City), Scott McTominay (Manchester United).
