Craig Gordon was not included in Scotland’s squad for Euro 2024 which manager Steve Clarke announced on Friday after a draw with Finland in their final warm-up match, where the goalkeeper came on to become his country’s oldest international player.
Gordon, 41, came on to replace Angus Gunn in the 2-2 draw at Hampden Park, with Scotland 2-0 up at the time, beating David Weir’s record set in 2010 when he played aged 40 years and 116 days.
The Hearts keeper suffered a serious leg injury at the end of 2022, and didn’t make a return to action until January this year.
“I wasn’t going to take four goalkeepers. It was a really tough decision to leave Craig out, when you think of the injury he’s come back from,” Clarke told reporters.
“I just felt that over the period of time that he’d been back and hadn’t become the number one at Hearts again, he’d only seven games since December 2022, it’s a long time.”
Gordon had been informed of the decision on Thursday night, but took his place on the bench for Friday’s game and made his 75th appearance for Scotland 20 years after making his debut.
“It was a really tough conversation with Craig, it was quite emotional to be honest for both of us I think,” Clarke said
“But the mark of the man is that he’s here tonight, because at the end of the conversation I said, ‘listen, I understand if you don’t like me and you don’t want to do this but I’d like to give you the 75th cap in the game at Hampden tomorrow’.”
Rangers defender John Souttar is the other player to miss out having been named in the provisional squad.
Ben Doak and Lyndon Dykes had already been replaced due to injury by Tommy Conway and Lewis Morgan, both of whom came off the bench against Finland and keep their places in the final squad for Germany.
Scotland will play hosts Germany in the Euro 2024 opening match on June 14, and will then take on Switzerland and Hungary in Group A, where they aim to reach the knockout stages for the first time.
SCOTLAND SQUAD FOR EURO 2024
Goalkeepers: Zander Clark (Hearts), Angus Gunn (Norwich City), Liam Kelly (Motherwell)
Defenders: Liam Cooper (Leeds United), Grant Hanley (Norwich), Jack Hendry (Al-Ettifaq), Ross McCrorie (Bristol City), Scott McKenna (Copenhagen), Ryan Porteous (Watford), Anthony Ralston (Celtic), Andy Robertson (Liverpool), Greg Taylor (Celtic), Kieran Tierney (Real Sociedad)
Midfielders: Stuart Armstrong (Southampton), Ryan Christie (Bournemouth), Billy Gilmour (Brighton & Hove Albion), Ryan Jack (Rangers), Kenny McLean (Norwich), John McGinn (Aston Villa), Callum McGregor (Celtic), Scott McTominay (Manchester United)
Forwards: Che Adams (Southampton), Tommy Conway (Bristol City), James Forrest (Celtic), Lewis Morgan (New York Red Bulls), Lawrence Shankland (Hearts).
