Billy Gilmour has suffered a crushing World Cup blow as a knee injury rules the midfielder out of this summer’s tournament. FIFA regulations allow Steve Clarke to call up a replacement, and their head coach has already identified his four potential candidates.
Napoli playmaker Gilmour looked devastated after sustaining a knee injury during the opening period against Curacao. Clarke admitted post-match that he was worried, revealing he was ‘hoping and praying’ he’d be fit to board tomorrow’s flight to North America.
Scotland have since confirmed the injury is serious enough to rule him out of the competition altogether. A statement read: “We regret to announce that the knee injury sustained by Billy Gilmour in today’s win over Curacao will rule him out of participation in the World Cup. We’re all with you, Billy.”
FIFA regulations allow injured players to make way up to 24 hours before their first World Cup fixture, which means Clarke will be able to turn to his standby group, reports. Tyler Fletcher, who made his debut at half-time against Curacao, is among four players who could step in for Gilmour.
There may also be an opening for Udinese’s Lennon Miller, who was unlucky to miss out on the original squad of 26. Assessing his options for the worst-case scenario following the match, which has now come to pass, Clarke said: “We have Connor Barron, Andy Irving, Lennon Miller and you can see for yourself how good young Tyler is. It will keep me awake tonight.
“The three I mentioned are on standby. Tyler joined us this week and trained well, this week, so he is a little bit closer than the other three. But I would need to have a big discussion with my staff in deciding that’s the way to go.
“Everybody’s impressed (with him). The players are impressed, and the coaching staff are impressed.
“I actually thought about putting him on as Billy came off. But I just thought I’d have a little look to see how the game panned out before introducing him at half time.”