Scotland don’t go to major tournaments without Rangers players in their squad and Steve Clarke’s selection for the European Championships has been no different.
Ryan Jack, technically, is classed as still being registered at Ibrox and part of Philippe Clement’s squad even if he has been announced as one of the five players being released.
Someone who hasn’t been quite as fortunate is John Souttar who, after missing the final few games of the season for Rangers hasn’t been able to recover in time to make the flight to Germany.
John Souttar misses out as Scotland name squad for Euro’s
The 27-year old centre-half has been one of the SPFL’s most consistent performers since making his debut for Dundee United in midfield as a fresh-faced 16-year old.
After skippering Hearts and establishing himself as one of the country’s best centre-halves, it seems criminal that he only has nine caps.
It’s not like the players who have been playing in recent seasons are of the standard of Paulo Maldini or Sergio Ramos either.
Scotland have lost a lot of goals recently with a combination of Jack Hendry, Ryan Porteous, Liam Cooper, Grant Hanley and Scott McKenna forming a three-man defence with wing-backs either side.
Souttar looked to have got over the worst of his injury issues this season and barely missed any games up until the final weeks of the season.
His latest setback couldn’t have come at a worse time.
To make matters worse, Hanley, Cooper and Rangers-linked McKenna have barely played the same number of games as Souttar has in this campaign, combined.
Blow for Souttar but Rangers benefit from defender’s luck
It’s a huge blow for the player and Philippe Clement will be disappointed for him, but it now means that the Rangers number five will be given time to rest and recuperate before returning to Auchenhowie for the beginning of pre-season training.
Souttar had established himself as Clement’s first choice central defender after Connor Goldson was dropped.
For most of the season he has played on the left of the pairing and he will have been frustrated to get injured just as he was getting a run of games on his favoured right-hand side.
As a home-grown player, Souttar is going nowhere in the summer and, with Leon Balogun signed up for another year, there will be question marks about both Goldson and Ben Davies.
Souttar deserves to be playing for Scotland and at major tournaments but, like Ryan Jack, his body can’t be trusted not to let him down when it really matters.
