GARY CALDWELL insisted today that Old Firm players are just as desperate to be involved for Scotland as they are for their respective clubs.
The national side had five call-offs – four from Rangers and one from Celtic – earlier this week, with last night's Scotland match against Croatia scheduled just days ahead of the second Old Firm meeting of the season.
The outcome of the Ibrox c
lash will have a huge bearing on where the SPL title ends up this season and the omission of so many players from Rangers brought criticism of both Walter Smith's side and of new boss George Burley.
However, Caldwell stressed that the honour of being selected to represent your country is too big to turn down, no matter which club you play for: "As a footballer you want to be playing in every game and to be part of the team, involved in training and getting more experience under your belt.
"Now that the Scotland game is out the way we can just start to look forward to Saturday and go out there to enjoy the game. I think that last night we showed that Scotland now has a good strength in depth.
"A lot of players came into the side because of call-offs and they showed that they could handle it at this level."
Steven Fletcher made his debut for the full Scotland squad while Christophe Berra had to be content with a seat on the bench for the 90 minutes.
However, rather than see the inclusion of younger players as a threat to his own international career, Caldwell believes that it simply increases competition for places – and the standards within the ranks.
"There are a lot of younger players in the squad now," he added "and that is only good for the side. I am quite an experienced member of the squad and I've played quite a few games for the side and I just have to hope that the manager allows me to continue like that, but it is good to have competition."
The full article contains 349 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
