News about Scott McKenna

Scotland manager Steve Clarke is weighing up a Nations League call-up for Preston North End defender Liam Lindsay. Clarke will name his squad for the double header with Croatia and Portugal on Tuesday. Injury has already ruled out Kieran Tierney and Scott McKenna, while Liam Cooper only made his debut for CSKA Sofia on Saturday after red tape delayed the former Leeds United captain's work permit.

"The challenge for teams coming to a club like Celtic is they sometimes can place their value on the league and not the player." So said Brendan Rodgers during Atalanta's long-running summer pursuit of Matt O'Riley, when every week seemed to bring with it a new bid from the Europa League holders, all of them well south of Celtic's valuation.

That Scotland didn't deserve to lose this game offered no real consolation in the end. The statistics now show that the national team have won just one of their last 13 games and find themselves in the midst of their longest winless run at home since 2008. The last victory of any description came in a friendly clash against Gibraltar.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW BY NATHAN SALT Oli McBurnie laughs when Mail Sport quizzes him on his Spanish just a couple of weeks into making the move to play in LaLiga with Las Palmas. The 28-year-old, who has worked his way up from Sunday League, through the top five leagues in English football, played in the Premier League, played internationally for Scotland and now prepares to take on Real Madrid and Barcelona, is perhaps facing his biggest challenge yet. How can he be the extroverted McBurnie, the life and soul in the dressing room, without speaking Spanish?

If Willie Miller was any more laid-back, he'd be horizontal. There's not really too much that puts him up or down. But this Scottish football legend, figuring prominently at the moment in BBC Scotland's Icons of Football television series, is getting excited. It's fair to say that's not his default position. As a radio pundit, he's not one for ranting and raving, shouting and screaming, but measured Miller might make an exception tonight if Scotland can boldly go where no other Scotland team has gone before and stay longer than three group games at a major tournament. Sixty-five-times capped by his country - and it would have been more had injury not intervened - Miller was one of the first players to be inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame.

IAN HERBERT IN COLOGNE: A tide of royal blue support on the banks of Rhine lifted Scotland to another level on Wednesday night and kept their place in these championships alive. The team they urged on were confronted by opponents who threatened them and just briefly, looked like they might bury them, but Scotland were lifted to another level. They took the point which means a win against Hungary in Stuttgart on Sunday could take them to the knock-out stages of a tournament for the first time. You would not say it was a European sophistication from Scotland. Just direct, vertical, muscular highly effective football. And it worked. Amid the cacophony of noise, they struck a post and could walk away in the knowledge that that were the better side.

CALUM CROWE IN MUNICH: The Germans ran riot as goals from Florian Wirtz and the outstanding Jamal Musiala (left) put them 2-0 up inside 20 minutes. Kai Havertz then made it 3-0 with a penalty just before half-time after an incident which saw Scotland defender Ryan Porteous sent off for a wild lunge on Ilkay Gundogan. Niclas Fullkrug added another for the hosts, before Scott McKenna pulled one back for the ten-man Scots late in the game.

Scotland defender Scott McKenna has refused to rule out a return to the Premiership with either Celtic or Rangers. The 27-year-old former Aberdeen star is a free agent after running down his contract at Nottingham Forest. And, after a spell on loan at FC Copenhagen, he plans to use the Euro finals to put himself in the shop window.

Nuno Espirito Santo's side finished 17th in the Premier League this season after a second successive campaign battling relegation. The club have invested heavily since their return to the top flight and have had a high turnover of players under owner Evangelos Marinakis.

JOE BERNSTEIN: After leaving Nottingham Forest on loan in January, defender Scott McKenna may have been cursing over his Kryptonite, Erling Haaland, for the second time in a row. Haaland thrashed Forest in a 6-0 thrashing on McKenna's last visit to The Etihad in 2022. On Wednesday night, things weren't any simpler for the Scotland international wearing a Copenhagen shirt. The center-half was bamboozled by Haaland's running at him shortly before halftime and then beat the turf in rage as the opportunity was converted. McKenna's only consolation is that he may be representing his country at the Euros this summer. Since Norway has failed to qualify, Haaland will unquestionably be unable to say the same.

The Portuguese takes over his first game against Bournemouth at the City Ground, aiming to break a run of one win from 13 games. One of Nuno's key beliefs is that his players should eat together after they have finished training and then remain there throughout the afternoon rather than going home straight. We now have a bigger lounge area at the training ground, which allows the players to spend more time together and dine together.' This is the first step.

Felipe, 34, is expected to have sustained an injury in preparation this week and will be unable to attend Ange Postecoglou's visit. Due to the injury, head coach Steve Cooper was left wondering whether to give McKenna, who started the season as first-choice, a recall to his squad. If the 27-year-old is selected, it is likely that he will be named on the substitute's bench for the match against Tottenham Hotspur.

SAMI MOKBEL: After being banned from training at new club Nottingham Forest, Joe Worrall is being monitored for a January transfer by both Leicester and Middlesbrough. Worrall and his colleague Scott McKenna had been barred from first-team training sessions at the club's Nigel Doughty Academy HQ, according to Mail Sport exclusively on Thursday.

BY SAMI MOKBEL: Nottingham Forest has barred club captain Joe Worrall and Scott McKenna from first-team training, according to Mail Sport. Both players have been instructed to train on different pitches from the rest of the first team. They have also been asked to register for training at a later date in lieu of their senior colleagues.

Nottingham Forest have turned to Steve Cook to solve their defensive injury problems after Willy Boly was barred from playing for the remainder of the season. Boly is expected to miss at least three months, while Scott McKenna is also on the brink for six weeks. In last week's 2-0 loss at Fulham, the defenders were compelled to leave in the same minute due to hamstring injuries. Since being initially held out last month, Forest has pleaded to the Premier League to recall Cook to their 25-man squad.

CHRIS WHEELER AT OLD TRAFFORD: So, Manchester United will meet Newcastle United in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley Stadium three weeks on Sunday, as if there was ever in a serious doubt last night. A good final between two clubs for whom winning this trophy will mean a lot. Newcastle fans don't need to remind that their club hasn't won a major domestic title in 68 years. The drought is only six years for Manchester United, but it still feels far too long for a club of this size. A trophy isn't only long overdue for United, but it's also vital in terms of proving Erik ten Hag's work since he took over at Old Trafford in the summer.

CRAIG HOPE IN KRAKOW: Scotland is fighting illness as a result of rotten luck with injuries ahead of their crucial Nations League match against Ukraine in Poland on Tuesday evening. Steve Clarke's team arrived in Krakow on Monday with a sickness virus that had spread through the company over the weekend. Several players, including strikers Che Adams and Lyndon Dykes, have been impacted by the virus. During last week's home victories over Ukraine and the Republic of Ireland, Scots boss Kieran Tierney (concussion), Nathan Patterson (knee/ankle), and Scott McKenna (knee) sustained injury.

STEPHEN MCGOWAN IN KRAKOW: Steve Clarke was able to call in Hearts duo Stephen Kingsley and Barrie McKay ahead of Monday afternoon's flight to Krakow, despite him being suspended. In the 2-1 victory over the Republic of Ireland at Hampden, the Scots' twin death of Arsenal's Tierney and Nottingham Forest central defender McKenna also lost the single point that would have boosted the Scots' hopes of securing a Euro play-off and promotion to Pool A of the Nations League.

MARK WILSON: Just as it appeared Scotland would not gain only accolades, the midfielder's personal moment of redemption highlighted a superb team effort, one that was dramatically improved from the limp loss to Ukraine in the World Cup play-off semi-finals. McGinn has admitted to being haunted by his inability to convert from close range in the second half years ago, just as the hopes of Qatar fell away. It happened at the same time as Hampden, which was fittingly. McGinn turned away from Valeriy Bondar after Kieran Tierney's challenge forced the ball in his direction. The finish was unerring this time. Following a string of thwarted opportunities, it arced into the bottom corner of the net for the 70th minute. In the midst of the second period's one-way traffic, Stuart Armstrong had three children alone. Since the Ukrainians outclassed their hosts three months ago, Steve Clarke came under a lot of flak.

The Premier League returned on Friday to offer fans with a marginally reduced schedule this weekend, sandwiched between last weekend's uprising and the forthcoming international break. Although Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United, Leeds, Brighton, Brighton, and Crystal Palace all missed out, the weekend's action left managers with a lot to chew over - and every Premier League manager will start examining the first two and a half months of the season. With that in mind, Sportsmail has analyzed all of the key talking points from the top flight this weekend, summarising ten lessons we learned from the seven fixtures.

Steve Cooper, the boss of what amounts to a completely new Forest team, must use the international break to find some coherence and tenacity. It came after a fourth straight loss - 3-2 to Fulham - left them stuck in the bottom three.

Liverpool defeated Bournemouth, Manchester City, and Arsenal, bringing off spectacular comebacks and United's revival under new manager Erik ten Hag - and now we're going back to it just days later. During a tumultuous run of the fixtures leading up to this year's World Cup in Qatar, fans are being treated to another ten matches in midweek, beginning Tuesday and Thursday. For this week's midweek games, Sportsmail has compiled a list of ten things you should be looking out for, including Steven Gerrard (left), Alexander Isak's potential Newcastle debut (inset), and a tense London derby between West Ham and Totteham (Declan Rice and Harry Kane, right).

ADAM SHERGOLD AT THE CITY GROUND: "Everybody has a scheme until they're punched in the mouth," Mike Tyson once said. Take Nottingham Forest. They would have spent the week learning how to get into Tottenham's faces, compel their players to move out from the back, and infuriate them with speed and precision. They then forfeited to a Harry Kane goal after just five minutes. No wonder Steve Cooper was crestfallen in his career. Spurs couldn't get it all set.

Taiwo Awoniyi (R) at the City Ground on Sunday thrashed Nottingham Forest in their first-half stoppage time, causing Hammers manager Moyes (inset) to resent a gesture from his players at the back that he preferred to incompetent film police officers the Keystone Cops.