McLeish knows just how Hendry feels . . .
HAVING been a first-team regular at Aberdeen for no fewer than 16 years and been capped by Scotland on 77 occasions, Alex McLeish was the epitome of consistency throughout his distinguished playing career.
Yet, McLeish recalled yesterday, as he announced his 23-man national squad for the double header against Belgium and Albania at Hampden next month, how his time as a centre-half for club and country was not without its difficult spells.
“I played 13 games in a row for Scotland – and then suffered an injury and found it difficult to find my form again,” he said.
That admission by one of this country’s greatest-ever defenders will doubtless be comforting for Jack Hendry, who was named in the pool for the forthcoming fixtures, given the hard time he is currently experiencing at Celtic.
Hendry has, along with several of his Parkhead team mates, been subjected to some fairly savage criticism from both supporters and media pundits following some distinctly below par performances domestically and in Europe this season.
But McLeish, who started the 23-year-old in the friendly matches against Hungary in Budapest in March and Mexico in Mexico City in June, appreciates from personal experience how a young player’s displays can fluctuate.
He is confident the former Dundee man, who only moved to Celtic in a £1.5m transfer back in January, has the ability and self-belief to ride out this tough period and feature once again for his country.
“It happens,” he said. “As I said, it happened to me in my career as well. When you play with Celtic and Rangers you need a strong mentality. It’s hard when you make a mistake and the fans have a go at you.
“The irony is that he got criticised for losing a goal in Europe – but we then had a fantastic report on him from the [Partick] Thistle game. He went on a mazy run which I hear was on YouTube, but, by and large, he had a really solid game.
“Jack has played very well for us and he played well in South and North America trip. I understand he didn’t travel last week because of an injury so maybe he’s been playing with that for a few weeks.
“We know football and football fans – you make a mistake and they get on your back. That’s the nature of the game. You need to be strong and get that experience.
“It’s going to happen at sometime and it’s now down to how he reacts to that with performances with Celtic. But I think Jack has the bottle.”
Hendry has a fair chance of being involved against Belgium and Albania given that Scott McKenna, the Aberdeen centre-half who has been involved in all four of the matches McLeish has overseen since being appointed back in February, is sidelined with a hamstring injury.
McKenna has attracted interest from Celtic, who had a £3.5m bid rejected last week.
“Scotty has had quite a meteoric rise over the last year,” said McLeish. “He’s still a young guy. Is it too early to go? Scott is still learning his trade, but he’s learning it fast. He’s a guy who will get better with the more experience he gets.”