Lawrence Shankland's Scotland situation explained with decision on Hearts man along with Newcastle's Elliot Anderson

Steve Clarke offered his reasons for not including the Tynecastle striker in the latest squad

Scotland coach Steve Clarke is wary of calling up Hearts striker Lawrence Shankland and giving him minimal game time this month. That is principally why Shankland was left out of Scotland’s squad for the European Championship qualifier against Spain and the friendly with France.

Having taken Shankland to Cyprus last month and left him sitting in the stand watching Scotland win 3-0, Clarke wanted an opportunity to look again at the Luton Town forward Jacob Brown this time round. That means no place for Shankland.

“I just felt that this time, rather than drag him around Europe again, it was probably better to leave him with his club and let him get on with it there,” said Clarke when asked about the Tynecastle captain.

Brown is one of three changes to the squad. Celtic’s Greg Taylor and Leeds United’s Liam Cooper were drafted in to replace the injured Kieran Tierney and Elliot Anderson, the Newcastle United midfielder who withdrew from last month’s group. Anderson is still unsure if he wants to commit his international future to Scotland or England.

“I spoke to Elliot in March, or before the March camp, and he said he wanted time to think about it,” stated Clarke. “I spoke to him in June, and he said he wanted time to think about it. Then a third party contacted me in August and said Elliot wanted to come with Scotland. So there was no pressure from us.

“That one has just been left as is. He’s a young man who’s obviously got a big decision to make. Having said he wanted to come up and be a part of it here, he’s gone away and wants to have a think about it a bit further. Let’s let the young man make his decision.”