Scotland manager George Burley will be without his first choice goalkeeper for the international friendly against Wales. Sunderland keeper Craig Gordon fractured his arm in a challenge during his side’s English Premier League match against Tottenham at White Hart Lane.
Gordon sustained the injury in a clash with Spurs striker Jermaine Defoe in the second half of the Premier League match. Although he initially tried to play on, he was replaced by Martyn Fulop and immediately ruled out of next weekend’s game.
After being take to hospital, X-rays confirmed that the ‘keeper has fractured his forearm. It is not yet known how long the £9m signing from Hearts will be on the sidelines.
The Scotland number one jersey is likely to be filled by Cardiff City goalkeeper David Marshall for next week’s match. The game will be played in familiar surroundings for Marshall as it will be the first international played at his club’s new home.
Marshall had publicly voiced his displeasure at not being picked to play against Japan in Scotland’s last match. Marshall was unhappy at making the round-trip to Yokohama only to sit on the bench and earned a rebuke from his international manager.
Burley made it clear that he would not be swayed by player’s wishes when picking the team and pointed out that he had been in a similar position as a player when travelling to the 1982 World Cup and not being played.
There is no lingering problem between manager and player and the Cardiff ‘keeper is likely to get his chance to impress from the start on Saturday. Aberdeen goalkeeper Jamie Langfield is also in the squad and it is likely Burley will call up a third goalkeeper on Monday.
Gordon’s withdrawal from the squad comes after Scott Brown and Shaun Maloney were ruled out of the original squad through injury. Burley is attempting to develop his squad for the European Championship campaign after missing out on World Cup qualification.
Scotland last faced Wales in 2004 when Robert Earnshaw scored a hat-trick as the home side recorded a 4-0 victory at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium.
Last updated: 08 November 2009, 09:01
The links provided allow you to bookmark this page into your favourite social media website. For users with JavaScript disabled copy and paste the URL from the address bar into your chosen social bookmarking site.