Wallace out of Scotland squad

[ian1964 10,409]

Lee Wallace has withdrawn as expected from the Scotland squad for the final World Cup qualifier against Croatia at Hampden Park on Tuesday night, the Scottish Football Association has confirmed.

 

The Rangers left-back has left the Scots' camp after failing to overcome a knee injury.

 

Manager Gordon Strachan pre-empted Wallace's departure on Saturday by calling in Stevie Hammell of Motherwell.

 

Meanwhile, Robert Snodgrass, who scored the winner when Scotland beat Croatia 1-0 in June, has rejoined the squad.

 

He was given leave by Strachan, to attend the birth of his daughter, Leonie.

 

His partner, Denise, gave birth late last week and Snodgrass is determined to deliver more good news.

 

"I'm absolutely buzzing after the birth of our baby," he told the Scottish FA's official website.

 

"I managed to train at the club last week but I think the adrenaline of fatherhood alone will get me through it.

 

"I'm looking forward to training tomorrow and I would like to thank the manager for being so understanding."

 

Snodgrass immediately set his sights on helping Scotland repeat their Zagreb heroics.

 

With the Tartan Army still waiting for their first home win of the campaign, the Norwich City player is looking for a rousing farewell to continue the momentum into preparations for the Euro 2016 qualifiers next year.

 

"It is important we finish as high up the table as we can and really give the crowd at Hampden something to cheer," he said.

 

"We don't want to finish the group without a home win and after the momentum we have built up it would be great to finish the campaign with another positive result that we can take into the preparations for the European Championship qualification campaign."

 

Snodgrass believes Scotland will be afforded greater respect by Croatia, who will have to qualify through the play-offs after losing to Belgium on Friday, following the game in Zagreb.

 

"It will be a different type of game to the one in June," he said. "We went there with nobody giving us a chance of winning, while Croatia still had hopes of topping the group.

 

"We worked hard in training for the week before, carried that effort and determination into the game and fortunately I managed to score the winning goal.

 

"I think now we have proved we are a tougher proposition, and on top of the Croatia result, we showed a resilience to win in Macedonia (in the last game) after they equalised."

 

http://www.sportinglife.com/football/news/article/165/8971511/-

[Gribz 743]

Good for us this time. If there was anything ridding on the game for Scotland Id want the best team available and Wallace would start, but there we are only playing for places in the group.