SFA sweat on Cairney allegiance
ALEX McLEISH will seek assurances from Tom Cairney over his commitment to the Scotland cause. Fulham told the SFA the midfielder, 27, was unavailable for the forthcoming doubleheader with Israel and Portugal amid reports Gareth Southgate wants to poach him for England. Son of a Scottish father and English mother, Nottinghamborn Cairney was capped against Canada and Costa Rica. Because both games were friendlies, however, he can still switch to the Three Lions. Insisting there is nothing sinister in Cairney’s absence from a 23-man squad for the Nations League qualifier in Tel Aviv followed by a home friendly with Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal, McLeish said: ‘Tom is not there because we had
dialogue with Fulham at the beginning of the week and we were told he was not able to make it. He played 20 minutes at the weekend and, obviously, there is the story regarding England — but we would expect him to be available for the next international. ‘I have not spoken to him as yet. I did liaise with our performance analyst Graeme Jones. ‘Jonesy said Tom was not going to be available.’ McLeish successfully persuaded Manchester United’s Scott McTominay to commit himself to the Scots over England. Admitting he might have to do the same with Cairney if he has reason to doubt his commitment, McLeish admitted: ‘He has been injured for a considerable period — five weeks or so. ‘We did know that he was a bit rusty, not having played that amount of time. ‘The England thing? I guess we are vulnerable in that situation but I didn’t see any indication Tom had a hankering to play for England. ‘He seemed happy with the group any time he came away with Scotland. I guess you would want people to be totally committed to the cause. I think Tom Cairney is. ‘I looked Scott McTominay in the eye and asked if he was committed to us. I would do the same with Tom if it came to it. ‘He’s a good player. He has only had a couple of caps but I watched Fulham over the last couple of years and Tom and Kevin McDonald have played to a really good level within the team. ‘They caught my eye, both of them, before I was in the national team job, so they were in my mind anyway.’ Martin Boyle of Hibs is likely to be named in Australia’s squad for a friendly in Kuwait on October 15, meanwhile, after McLeish resisted the urge to call up the Easter Road winger. The 25-year-old was robbed of a place on Scotland’s end-of-season trip to Peru and Mexico by injury and McLeish admitted: ‘At the moment, I am pretty rich in that position and it would be difficult to get Martin in ahead of guys who are already in that squad.’