Stricken Billy Gilmour has checked into Scotland’s camp in Boston as fears grow that Scott McTominay might be the next big name to be ruled out of Saturday’s World Cup opener. Gilmour was reunited with Steve Clarke’s squad on Thursday night, almost a fortnight after his dream of starring on the biggest stage was shattered by a knee injury suffered during the Hampden send-off against Curacao on May 30.
Now his Napoli teammate McTominay is also sparking concerns ahead of the Group C opener against Haiti after missing training with a suspected dose of food poisoning. The medics are confident that McTominay will recover in time, but he was absent from the final session at Charlotte FC’s state-of-the-art facility before the team made the 850-mile trip north to Massachusetts.
Gilmour was there to meet them at the other end. The midfielder, also celebrating his 25th birthday, had his name removed from the traveling party just hours before the squad left Glasgow for the States, with his No. 8 shirt taken by Manchester United rookie Tyler Fletcher.
Shortly before heading for the airport in North Carolina, midfielder Kenny McLean revealed: “Billy has just landed in the States. Billy is going to come and see the lads tonight, which is amazing. It is his birthday as well, so happy birthday Billy. I think he has turned 17, I’m not sure! But he is going to be here, he obviously wants to experience things around the lads, also around the city with fans, to soak in the atmosphere. He obviously deserves so much more for what he has given, but there is going to be more opportunity for him in the future.”
Clarke’s medical department, meanwhile, was busy attending to McTominay, who is believed to have spent the previous 24 hours feeling unwell and repeatedly vomiting. But McLean is confident that the team’s talisman will declare himself fit and ready for action ahead of kick-off on Saturday night.
McLean said: “Hopefully that doesn’t spread. I am sure everybody has fingers crossed that Scotty will be fine and I’m sure he will be. Everybody knows what Scotty brings. It is quite apparent how big a player he is for us. For all that it has been a team effort, and always will be a real team effort, but we have special players at the core. He is obviously desperate to play and his preparations have been amazing apart from maybe something he has eaten somewhere along the line.”
Scotland will have to get this campaign off to a flyer by taking all three points against the Haitians to stand a chance of reaching the knockout stages, with group games against Morocco and Brazil to follow. But McLean has a hunch that Clarke’s side could quickly become one of the biggest surprise packages at the tournament.
He said: “Obviously we want to be that team, but we know it is going to be difficult. As I have mentioned previously, the last couple of weeks have been amazing, focusing on what we can do to be that team and be as good as we can be. The quality that we have, we know we can be that team. But the full focus right now is on Saturday. That is all it can be. We can’t look too far ahead, we can’t start looking at the history we can make. Saturday is so huge and crucial for us, and that’s what this build-up has been about, this week especially, Haiti. We will go there and try to win the game, we feel we definitely can, but it is all down to us.”
