Naismith ‘deserves to reach 50 caps’

John Souttar feels a half-century of Scotland caps for Hearts team-mate Steven Naismith would be deserved reward for his commitment and perseverance.

Naismith looks set to lead the line for Scotland in Israel on Thursday after Leigh Griffiths decided to stay and work on his fitness at Celtic’s Lennoxtown training centre.

Souttar is confident Scotland have enough firepower with Naismith, Swansea striker Oli McBurnie and Johnny Russell, who is fresh from scoring a crucial and impressive goal for Sporting Kansas City.

“If you look at the Albania game, Naisy has come in and been unbelievable,” Souttar said.

“He has been unbelievable for us this season.

“Griff’s a good player but there’s a lot of good players here so I’m sure we will be OK. There’s good players here all over the pitch. Oli and Johnny are also strikers who have been brilliant this season as well.”

Naismith’s international career looked like it might be over after he went 18 months without featuring for his country after injury problems and falling out of favour at Norwich.

The 32-year-old won a late call-up for last month’s double-header against Albania and Belgium, however, scored and had a major say in another goal in the 2-0 Nations League victory over the former.

The ex-Rangers and Everton player – who bounced back from cruciate ligament injuries in both knees earlier in his career – now looks likely to hit 50 caps before the year is out after scoring nine goals for Hearts already this term.

“He’s got so much experience, I think he is on 47 caps,” Souttar said.

“That’s an incredible amount of games for your country.

“Everyone just thinks you get picked but there is a lot more to it than playing that amount of games.

“I hope he gets 50 – it’s testament to him that with how many bad injuries he has had and how many times he has been written off and he said himself he didn’t think he would be back.

“For him to come back and play like he did against Albania, it just shows the man and the professional that he is.”

Picture: SNS Group. Steven Naismith scored on his Scotland return.