Scotland play Wales in the Carling Nations Cup on Wednesday at the AVIVA Stadium in Dublin aiming to maintain their 100 per cent record in the competition.
Craig Levein's men beat Northern Ireland in their opening game, while Wales lost to Republic of Ireland in their first match.Peterborough striker Craig Mackail-Smith is also unavailable due to his side's involvement in the League One play-off final.
Scotland are without regular captain Darren Fletcher as he is preparing for Saturday's Champions League final with Manchester United.
Kris Commons, Alan Hutton, Graham Dorrans and Craig Gordon are all unavailable through injury.
Leeds striker Ross McCormack is set to start his first Scotland game in nearly two years after ending the season well at Elland Road and he will partner Kenny Miller in attack.
Allan McGregor will start in goal with Christophe Berra, Gary Caldwell, Stephen Craine and Steven Whittaker making up the defence.
Scott Brown is expected to partner Charlie Adam in central midfield with Steven Naismith and James Morrison making up the rest of the midfield.
The Wales boss Gary Speed is expected to name a side made up mainly of Championship players as he does not want to risk any of his Premier League stars.
Speed, who is searching for his first win as Wales manager, will leave out new skipper Aaron Ramsey, Wayne Hennessey, Jack Collison, Danny Collins, Neal Eardley and David Vaughan after they all played for their clubs last weekend.
In Ramsey's absence Rob Earnshaw is set to captain the side in Dublin as he prepares to win his 53rd cap.
Aston Villa defender James Collins is missing with a groin injury and he joins Joe Ledley, Dave Edwards, Lewin Nyatanga and Ched Evans on the casualty list.
Speed is unable to call upon Swansea duo Ashley Williams and Joe Allen as well as Reading pair Simon Church and Hal Robson-Kanu due to their involvement in the Championship play-off final.
However, Swansea full-back Neil Taylor is set to play as he is suspended for the play-off clash.
Owain Tudur Jones, Craig Morgan, Andy Dorman and Jermaine Easter could all be involved after they were late inclusions in the squad.
No comments:
Post a Comment