Ben Doak out of Scotland's Nations League play-off with Greece as he returns to Liverpool from Middlesbrough

Scotland will be without teenage winger Ben Doak for this month’s Nations League play-off against Greece. He has undergone surgery for a thigh injury suffered on loan at Middlesbrough and returned to parent club Liverpool for treatment.

The operation was not considered major but it will rule the 19-year-old out for a number of weeks. He is now facing a race against time to play again this season with Middlesbrough challenging for a play-off place near the top of England’s Championship.

Scotland manager Steve Clarke also sees his plans impacted ahead of the two-legged tie with Greece. Aiming to avoid relegation from League A, the national team travel to Piraeus to face the Greeks on Thursday 20 March before the return leg at Hampden Park three days later. Doak would have been a key member of the side had he been fit.

He featured in all six Nations League ties last autumn and turned in some sterling displays. He was named man of the match against Croatia at Hampden Park in November after creating Scotland’s late winning goal. Doak’s dribbling run and shot was parried into John McGinn’s path for the Aston Villa midfielder to hit the decisive strike. Three days later, Doak’s intelligent square pass teed up McGinn again for the opening goal in a 2-1 victory away to Poland which secured the play-off position.

The Dalry-born youngster has also impressed since joining Middlesbrough on loan from Liverpool last August. He claimed three goals and seven assists for Michael Carrick’s side so far this season, causing English Championship defences all sorts of trouble with his pace and direct running. He has been missing since the thigh problem flared up at the end of January.

Carrick stated that Doak was close to a comeback with Middlesbrough hopeful that he might rejoin full training this week. However, he went for further examination and was then sent for an operation which was deemed necessary to give him the best chance of recovering quickly. He will now miss most of the remaining matches at club level and Scotland will doubtless feel his absence in two vital matches against Greece.

Clarke praised Tartan Army hero after Hampden heroics against Croatia

Clarke explained after the Croatia match why he felt Doak would continue to be an asset at international level. “He was good but I thought he might be,” said the national coach on the night. “He's come into the team, he's shown a really positive attitude, he brings us something a little bit different to what we've had before. So I'm really pleased with Ben and he gets the assist for the goal with the run.

“He could maybe have had a couple more and could maybe have scored one himself. So that's a contribution from a young player that we need to protect and look after. I realise he's good for now and hopefully for a long time in the future. What Ben's done over the last few games, I just felt it wasn't the time to take him out the firing line.

“I looked at Ryan (Christie) and Ben's contribution the last time we played. We expected Croatia to play with their back three and the wing-backs. Both Ben and Ryan did well for us out in Croatia, so that was the thinking behind that. But I also knew that I was strengthening the bench a little bit. You've got John to come in and he does what he does by coming off the bench and scoring the winner.”

READ MORE: Two new Scotland call-ups in Clarke’s mind as he scouts players for play-off