Scotland's McBurnie clears up social media 'banter' controversy

Sheffield United star McBurnie was reportedly heard on camera in the Bramall Lane tunnel saying he hoped not to be called up by Scotland during a conversation involving compatriot John Fleck and other team-mates.

Blades manager Chris Wilder dismissed the conversation on United's TV channel as "banter" and Reid insisted McBurnie has cleared up any doubts about his desire to play for Scotland. After McBurnie trained ahead of Scotland's Euro 2020 qualifiers against Russia and Belgium, his country's assistant coach Steven Reid said: "He spoke to the group before training, went out on the training pitch and wanted to speak to everyone and clarify the situation, which was cleared up pretty quickly."

McBurnie, who has seven international caps, also talked to Scotland manager Steve Clarke about the controversy.

"He is here, he is committed and he has spoken to the manager and the manager has made it clear that anyone that's not committed to being involved in squads, then they are not going to be involved," Reid said. "Everyone that you see training, anyone that is going to be in this squad and every squad going forward, they have to be committed or he has made it pretty clear that they are not going to be involved. They are not going to be in the plans going forward.

"He (McBurnie) had a few words with the group and trained really brightly. Hopefully we draw a line under that one now and move on and look forward to the two games, because it's a big opportunity for Oli and a big opportunity for the lads that are going to be involved."