Burley insists call-offs are genuine as Old Firm five miss Scotland duty

FIVE Old Firm players have withdrawn from the Scotland squad for tomorrow night's Hampden friendly against Croatia, but national team manager George Burley has declared himself at ease with the situation after the authenticity of each absentee's injury was verified by his own medical staff.

A total of seven players withdrew from Burley's squad yesterday, including the Rangers quartet of Barry Ferguson, Christian Dailly, Lee McCulloch and Allan McGregor who cited ankle, toe, thigh and knee complaints respectively.

They were joined by Barry Robson of Celtic who reported a knee injury. Birmingham striker James McFadden had already pulled out to undergo surgery on a knee problem and the list was completed by Stephen Pearson of Derby County who has a hernia complaint.

With the Old Firm meeting at Ibrox at lunchtime on Saturday in a crucial SPL fixture, suspicions were inevitably raised by the almost mass withdrawal of the Rangers players with only Kris Boyd remaining of those originally named by Burley.

The manager, however, said he has no concerns about the circumstances surrounding the call-offs after almost all of those concerned were examined by the SFA medical staff of doctors Stewart Hillis and John MacLean and physiotherapists Phillip Yeats and Michael McBride.

"There is no hiding the fact we have got injuries and they are genuine injuries," said Burley. "These call-offs are not just because there is an Old Firm game coming up.

"I want to play my strongest team, but if your medics say a player has an injury, then you can't play him. All of the players are certainly very keen to play. Croatia are great opposition and they all want to play for their country. But there is no way I'm going to play anyone who is injured.

"It's not a case of these players not being available because it's a friendly. If they were fit, they would be in my plans. But all seven players are injured. It's black and white. I wouldn't try and force someone who is not 100 per cent fit to play.

"We got our medics to look at them and one or two have nasty little injuries. The only one who didn't report for duty was Christian Dailly. He said he would come, but he has a cracked bone in his toe, so he's not going to be training in that condition. Sometimes you can have a pain-killing injection to play, and that's something Rangers will probably look at for the weekend.

"The players themselves are desperate to play. Barry Robson, for example, got a whack after 10 minutes of Celtic's game on Sunday, but was desperate to play for Scotland. But his knee has swollen up."

According to Rangers' website yesterday, it is expected Ferguson, Dailly and McCulloch will all be fit to face Celtic on Saturday, but Burley does not expect all of his injured players to recover by then.

"I would say maybe one or two might have a chance of playing for their clubs at the weekend," he said, "but quite a number don't."

There is also a doubt over Manchester United midfielder Darren Fletcher who was sent home by his club on Sunday after reporting for duty with a virus ahead of the game against Liverpool.

Gavin Rae, the Cardiff City midfielder, was the only replacement called up by Burley yesterday to leave him with a 20-strong group of players at his disposal.

Celtic captain Stephen McManus will lead the side in the absence of regular skipper Ferguson. The central defender is one of four Celtic players remaining in the squad, along with Gary Caldwell, Scott Brown and Paul Hartley, but Burley says he has reached no agreement to limit their involvement against Croatia ahead of the Old Firm match. "No deals have been made," he said. "Gordon Strachan and Walter Smith were very helpful. They have a big game on Saturday, but I think they appreciate the international scene is very important and that it's my job to pick my strongest team.

"We will assess it as the game goes on. My first thoughts are to pick my best team that is available. There are one or two players, as the game goes on, I might have a look at in terms of substitutions.

"I spoke to Stephen McManus today and he is going to be captain. He has had a tremendous season and is a great character. I had no hesitation in giving him the captaincy."