The loss of one of Scotland’s best players was sorely felt at Hampden Park as Scotland fell to a disappointing 2-0 defeat in their Group D opener against Czech Republic. The Scots missed Tierney’s thrusting runs from left centre-back and link up play with skipper Andy Robertson. There is now pressure on Scotland to get off the mark against England.
Many feel the chances of success at Wembley hinge on Tierney being available, but Clarke sounded cautious as he met reporters. According to the manager, Tierney desperately wanted to play and the fact he did not did “tells you that there was a problem”.
The manager added: “I wouldn’t think Kieran will train tomorrow [on Wednesday]. I can’t tell if he is going to be okay, that is the honest answer.”
Even if Monday’s game against the Czechs had been a World Cup final, Clarke stressed Tierney would not have been able to feature.
“You can’t play with a calf injury,” he said. “He is back light training, that is a big difference to normal training.”
Clarke shed some light on when Tierney’s problem arose. The manager had insisted there were no injury concerns at a press conference on the eve of the clash with Czech Republic.
“I knew there was an issue 48 hours before the game,” the manager said. “You are hoping when he wakes up the next day he will be okay and you can tell he has a chance.
“You can tell how close he was because he was back in light training on Tuesday morning. It was one of them. If you have a calf injury it can be a bit of a b***er. It is just a little niggle.”
The manager reported that Tierney was understandably disappointed to miss out.
“He is okay and wanted to play, like everybody wanted to play,” said Clarke. “There were two others who were left out with him, John Fleck and Declan Gallagher, they also wanted to play.”
