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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
Sport
Aidan Smith

Kieran Tierney injury fears eased as Arsenal star trains as normal for Scotland

Kieran Tierney has trained as normal for Scotland today ahead of tomorrow's Euro qualifier against Georgia.

The Arsenal defender limped out of Saturday's stunning win over Norway, but manager Steve Clarke insisted the 26-year-old was just tired in gruelling 30-degree heat.

He said: “Tired. Just tired. He didn’t join us for the training camp. Not released by his club.

“He joined us at the start of this week and felt a bit of tightness in his quad so we just protected him all week.

“To get a good hour out of the lad was fantastic and shows that everybody is prepared to put their body on the line. And then we are bringing on Liam Cooper who is a top-quality defender.”

Those claims were backed up today as Tierney trained with his Scotland teammates at lesser Hampden ahead of a huge clash in Glasgow tomorrow.

With Spain not playing, Scotland extended their lead at the top of Group A and moved eight points ahead of third seeds Norway on Saturday.

Scotland’s win already puts them in a strong position with a perfect record ahead of Tuesday’s visit of Georgia, which will mark the halfway point in the campaign.

Clarke explained: “If we want to qualify for major tournaments, you know you have to go away from home against good teams and pick up points. This is three points which is big but we have to go again.

“They are all in there recovering in an ice bath and we have to make sure we get three points on Tuesday to capitalise. It sets us up nicely for Tuesday, I am not looking beyond that.

“I was pleased with the performance, we were disciplined and passed it quite well at times.

“Obviously, you have got to soak up a lot of pressure against a good Norwegian team. And we never stopped believing. We keep going to the end and got our rewards.

“It says a lot about the character, the spirit, the quality from the bench. One of the things I keep banging on about with this group of players, the quality we have got, they want to do well for their country.

“And when I turn to the bench and I know I need to make changes to freshen it up, I am putting top-quality players on the pitch.

“It was just about getting the timing right. After losing the goal, I felt it was better just to stay in the fight for a little bit to make sure the game didn’t run away from us.

“After that we had to chase the game, it was pretty logical – you are going to take off a defender and push John McGinn a little bit further forward.

“We brought Kenny to the game, Billy Gilmour to the game, brought Stuart Armstrong to the game, fresh legs to try and get forward and they were involved in most of the best things towards the end of the game.

“Even Dominic (Hyam) comes on at the end and sticks his head on a couple. Congratulations to Dominic, first cap, not a bad place to do it, not a bad score.”

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