Lee Johnson insists Ryan Porteous deserves his Scotland call-up despite his recent form for Hibs.
The centre back made his international debut against Ukraine in a 0-0 draw back in September as Steve Clarke’s squad was hit by a plethora of defensive injuries. Porteous was outstanding in the stalemate that saw the Scots secure promotion to the top tier of the UEFA Nations League and second seed status for the Euro 2024 qualifying draw.
Porteous is back in as Clarke prepares his squad to take on Turkey in a friendly next week. However, things haven’t been plain sailing for Porteous and his Hibs teammates domestically. The Easter Road club have lost five of their last six games and have been far from solid at the back, shipping 15 goals in the process. But Johnson says Porteous’ honesty means he should be pulling on the dark blue again and that a change of environment could be beneficial to the 25-year-old.
“Three or four weeks ago, we were all hailing Ryan as a hero. This is part of being a footballer. Your form can go up and down and I think he’d say that off the ball his defending hasn’t been as good as it had been leading into that spell.
“He’s a very honest player. He can look at himself and be honest with that. Not everybody can and that’s a good sign; that’s why he’s an international player. But I think he deserves his call-up. A change is as good as a rest, in that sense, in terms of his focus being on Scotland and something different and he’ll be fine when he comes back to us.”
Porteous is out of contract at the end of the season. A new deal is on the table from his boyhood club but he is yet to make a decision either way.
Johnson is braced for the January bids he believes are inevitable. One could come from Stoke City after Record Sport revealed the Potters are tracking Porteous, along with a number of other English clubs.
But the Hibs boss doesn’t want to press the issue of contract discussions while Porteous is playing. He said: “Let’s get this game out of the way and then in the next press conference we can embrace those types of questions. I don’t know any more from two or three weeks ago, when it was parked. It will be, ‘what are you doing?’ And it will be, ‘I am or I’m not’, but at the moment he’s obviously playing and it’s not something you want to push while he’s playing”
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