Costa Rica boss has fond

His club boss Tony Mowbray is anxious to have him back fully fit for Blackburn’s league game against Bradford City just two days later.

“The manager so far has said it’s for the Costa Rica game and then we’ll take it from there,” said Mulgrew. “I’m aware of the fact Blackburn have a game next Thursday but my full focus is on Scotland right now.

“When Tuesday’s over and we get back home, then I can deal with that. It’s still 36 hours between games and as a centre-half, you don’t do as much running as other positions. So we’ll see what happens. Right now, I haven’t thought any further ahead than Friday night.” Costa Rica coach Oscar Ramirez has highlighted the importance of Scotland to his country’s football history.

Ramirez was in the Los Ticos side which shocked the Scots 1-0 in their opening Group C encounter at the 1990 World Cup in Italy.

Scotland manager Alex Mcleish was in the Scotland defence that day, which marked Costa Rica’s first appearance at the finals. While Mcleish this evening begins his second tenure in the Hampden hot seat looking ahead to the inaugural Nations League later in the year, Ramirez is preparing Costa Rica for their fifth World Cup appearance.

“It was a very important game in the history of Costa Rican football of course, being the first match we had at the World Cup,” said Ramirez, speaking through an interpreter at Hampden.

“We did a very good job preparing the team for Italia 90. A nation who had never