BURTON O’BRIEN today insisted that there is no chance of him performing an international U-turn and agreeing to play for Scotland.
The Livingston midfielder scored two magnificent goals to cap a wonderful individual performance in Sunday’s 4-2 defeat to Celtic, causing boss Allan Preston to bemoan the fact the 23-year-old has pledged his future to South Africa.
O’Brien has a
ccepted an invitation from Stuart Baxter to play for the country of his birth after being continually snubbed by Scots boss Berti Vogts.
He has several Scotland under-21 caps to his name but FIFA are expected to allow him to switch as he has not played in a full competitive international.
Once he receives clearance he expects to join South Africa’s World Cup qualifying campaign and insists he would not be receptive to any 11th-hour bid from Scotland.
He said: "I sent off a letter to the SFA in the summer telling them I’m not available for selection and I’m sticking to that.
"For me it’s all about feeling wanted and Stuart Baxter has said he wants me. He got in touch and asked if I would be interested in playing for South Africa and I never gave it a second thought.
"I’ve not been capped yet, but I’ve sent away all the relevant papers to FIFA and I’m just waiting to hear back.
"It’s dragged on a bit and I would imagine it would be after Christmas before I play for South Africa but they’ve made me feel wanted and I’m not going to change my mind."
Despite being sad to see a potentially talented internationalist slip through Scotland’s fingers Preston insists O’Brien is perfectly entitled - and right - to opt for South Africa.
He said: "Burton has been brilliant all season and I’d say he’s been our best player without a doubt.
"I think it’s a shame he’s never been called up for Scotland, especially as we don’t have too many quality left-sided players.
"He was born in Johannesburg so he’s more than entitled to play for South Africa."
Judging by Sunday’s performance Scotland’s loss will very much be South Africa’s gain.
O’Brien was arguably the best player afield and his two goals destabilised the champions, who had raced into a four-goal lead with little more than half an hour gone.
The midfielder was one of too few Lions players who looked willing and able to stand up to Celtic and his two goals were of the highest quality.
He continued: "It was nice to get the goals, especially as I’d never scored against Rangers or Celtic before.
"They were good goals but I still think my favourite was the one I scored against Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup last season.
"It would have been much better if the goals had counted towards us getting a result, though."
O’Brien believes Livingston lacked the self-belief required to take on Celtic.
The Hoops steamrollered their hosts in the first half hour with some devastatingly incisive attacking and O’Brien acknowledges the champions were good in that period.
However, he believes the Lions could have been braver and said he’d tried to base his own performance around a piece of advice he received from former manager Davie Hay.
He continued: "Celtic were very good in the first half and we were very bad so it was a combination.
"Davie Hay always said to me that you have to be brave against Rangers and Celtic - by that he didn’t just mean physically. He also used to say it was important to be confident on the ball and that’s something I tried to take into Sunday’s game.
"I’m not sure what happened at the weekend. We had been doing well in previous games but maybe we suffered from a fear factor against Celtic.
"You’ve got to remember that Celtic will beat much better teams than Livingston because of their quality but we were still disappointed.
"Before the match we were looking to take something from the match, even if it was just a point.
"We didn’t but we still have to try and look at the positives.
"We stood up to them in the second half and caused them quite a few problems so we can take heart from that."
