Billy Gilmour knee injury leaves Scotland’s Steve Clarke ‘praying’ days before World Cup

Scotland manager Steve Clarke is “praying” for good news on Billy Gilmour’s scan results after he was forced off with a knee injury just a day before the squad fly out to the United States for the World Cup.

The Napoli midfielder limped off in the 42nd minute of Scotland’s 4-1 victory over Curacao when he went down clutching his right knee several minutes after a collision.

In what was supposed to be a send-off game ahead of the national team’s first World Cup appearance since 1998, Clarke admitted he is “100 per cent worried” about the prospect of having to replace a key player.

“He’s gone for a scan now. I’m sitting here, hoping and praying he’s on the plane,” said Clarke.

“He hurt himself in the tackle and then made the decision he had to come off so that tells you he himself knew it wasn’t right. We just have to wait and see. There is no point speculating or thinking the worst. Let’s wait and see what the medics say.”

Gilmour has 46 caps and was likely to start the Group C opener against Haiti on June 13 but his absence would leave a sizeable hole to fill.

Manchester United midfielder Tyler Fletcher, son of former Scotland captain Darren Fletcher, came on at half-time for his senior debut. The 19-year-old was drafted in as a training player this week but performed well at Hampden.

“He did, everybody’s impressed, the players are impressed, the coaching staff are impressed,” said Clarke.

“I actually thought about putting him on as Billy came off, but I just thought I’d have a little look, see how the game panned out before introducing him at half time.”

Udinese midfielder Lennon Miller was the surprise exclusion from the 26-man squad named last week and he is one of several more established players who may now have to compete with Fletcher should a midfield replacement be required.

“A good headache though,” said Clarke.

“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 (other) three I mentioned are on standby. Tyler joined us this week and trained well this week so 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.”