McLeish blames plastic pitch for Tierney trauma

Scotland boss McLeish has slammed the poor facilities at Livingston's training ground for causing the injury to one of his key stars. 

Tierney is a consistent starter for Scotland, but after training on the morning of the flight to Albania, the player has now been ruled out of the squad with a hamstring injury, in a further blow to McLeish's stricken side.

The 21 year old payed the full 90 minutes of Celtic's draw with fellow Premiership side last week, and has been training with discomfort in the week since.

McLeish was unwilling to risk a more lengthy lay off for the player, and as such, allowed him to withdraw from his increasing depleted squad. 

The Scotland manager told the assembled press on Friday evening: "He had a tightness in his leg, his hamstring. There was no doubt about it, you can't mess about with these things. Right away, he flagged it up this morning. He nursed it over the week. We all thought it was due to the fact Celtic played on astroturf last week. There was a bit of tightness with all the Celtic guys playing on different surfaces."

Asked if the left back would have been okay had his side played on grass, McLeish replied: "I don't know but there is a difference playing on astroturf, no doubt about it. I don't want to criticise astroturf pitches per se but the guys came with a bit of tightness."

He continued: "t's something that's out of our control, a little bit of a freak. It's not something sinister. It's bad luck. The guys play to very high levels, they go into the red zone in training, some of them pick up knocks. Unfortunately for us, we've had a number at the same time. They are all genuine injuries."

While preparations have been disrupted slightly, McLiesh maintained that this would not alter his tactics heading into the next two matches. 

McLeish insisted: "We felt that travelling to Edinburgh or Glasgow and then to Albania within 48 hours didn't make sense, especially when we were totally prepared for the game and we know what our plans are."

Scotland travel to Shkoder to play Albania on Friday, before returning home to Hampden park, where they will face Israel on Tuesday.