Tyler Fletcher made his debut for Scotland’s senior team on Saturday and could now get the golden chance to head to the World Cup.
It was another big day in the career of Tyler Fletcher on Saturday as he made his bow for Scotland’s senior national side.
Fletcher had an impressive performance in midfield, having played the entire second half, with Scottish media hailing the ‘pizzazz’ he brought to the team.
It was a good warm-up outing for Scotland as they thrashed Curacao 4-1 at Hampden Park. However, it wasn’t all good for the Tartan Army.
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Steve Clarke admits Tyler Fletcher is nearest to replacing Billy Gilmour
The nightmare for Steve Clarke in a build-up game like this would be for one of his best players to get injured, and that is exactly what happened with Billy Gilmour.
After picking up a knee injury in the friendly, it has been confirmed that the Napoli midfielder will miss the tournament.
As quoted by The BBC, this has left Clarke with a choice to make over who replaces Gilmour, and Fletcher may be leading the way.
“There’s Connor Barron, Andy Irving, Lennon Miller, and you’ve seen for yourselves just how good young Tyler is. I’ll probably keep him up tonight too.
“The three players I mentioned are on standby. Tyler joined us this week, and he’s trained well, so he’s a bit closer than the other three, but I’ll have to have a long discussion with my staff to decide on the best course of action.”
Former Scotland winger Neil McCann told Clarke on the BBC that Fletcher looked “really accomplished” in his role at the base of midfield, and Clarke agreed.
“Everybody was impressed – the players were impressed, the coaching staff were impressed, I had no doubts.
“I actually thought about putting him on as Billy came off, but I just thought I’d have a little look, see how the game panned out before introducing him at half-time.”
This would obviously be a huge deal for Fletcher and could be massively influential on his development.
Fletcher won United’s U21 player of the season award this campaign, along with making his debut under Michael Carrick, but this would be the cherry on the cake.
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Kenny McLean hails Fletcher
Seeing Fletcher called up to the World Cup squad might be a bit of a surprise given he was only involved in this camp for the experience.
But Scotland midfielder Kenny McLean has admitted he “can’t speak highly enough” of Fletcher.
“I said to the lads after his first session, I could see something special in him, so I was glad that he’d got on today. He deserved it after the week he’s had.
“In my first session with Scotland, Darren stood out a mile. Fortunately for us, his son is pretty similar. There’s a lot of potential; it’s about using him the right way.”
McLean played with Darren Fletcher earlier in his career, and it must feel like a full-circle moment for him.
It seems highly likely that Fletcher is World Cup-bound now, for games against Brazil, Morocco, and Haiti.
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