STEVE CLARKE will be struggling to sleep at night following Scotland’s Covid outbreak, according to St Johnstone assistant Steven MacLean.
The national team have been rocked ahead of their European Championship opener against the Czech Republic after midfielder John Fleck tested positive for the virus.
Scotland drew 2-2 with the Netherlands in a friendly on Wednesday and played without seven players, including Fleck, due to Covid-19 precautions coming into play.
St Johnstone had a similar outbreak ahead of the Scottish Cup final last month and MacLean has real sympathy for Clarke and his coaching staff.
“Steve Clarke won’t be sleeping much anyway, I can tell you that,” explained MacLean. “It’s a nightmare because Covid is so unpredictable.
“They are going by the Spanish guidelines so it’s a wee bit different to what we had before the Scottish Cup games. But it’s still difficult to deal with no matter where it is.
“Hopefully John Fleck is okay and it hasn’t affected him much, and the rest of the players keep testing negative. If he can get a couple of negative tests in then hopefully he’ll be able to come back into the group.
“We just have to hope it’s an isolated case and they don’t have an outbreak like we did because it’s so difficult to manage. We didn’t train a lot and it makes things very difficult.”
Saints went days without training ahead of their historic cup double and also avoided using buses to limit the risk of the virus spreading in camp.
Luckily for the Perth outfit their extra precautions paid off as their full-strength squad toppled Hibernian at the national stadium.
MacLean continued: “You don’t want to do too much because you don’t want people mixing so it’s a catch-22 situation. On one hand you need to get work into the players but on the other you don’t want more outbreaks, so it’s a balancing act.
“You basically have to take it every hour and after every test you’re sitting by the phone saying ‘please don’t get the call’ or ‘please tell me everyone is okay’.
“After every testing day we had I always said to Mel our physio that if I hadn’t heard from her by five o’clock I knew we were in bother. It was hard because the players were just coming in, training and going straight home again afterwards.
“As staff, we didn’t get to meet as much, you didn’t see as much of each other and it made life difficult. That was without doing anything wrong, we were just so unfortunate.
“The one advantage the Scotland setup have is they are not going home, they have the players together now. They are in their own bubble now. So hopefully that means they will only have one positive case and, fingers crossed, they can get through to the Euros without any problems.”
Barring any further Covid breakouts MacLean is confident that Scotland’s attacking line has more than enough quality to shine at the Euros this summer.
Kevin Nisbet was on target for Clarke’s team against the Netherlands on Wednesday and MacLean reckons the Hibs frontman could play a key role over the course of the tournament.
He added: “I was pleased for Nisbet to come on straight away and score, Lyndon Dykes did well too. You also have Che Adams coming back, so there are some really good options up front.
“Hopefully whatever they do, they’ll do well and the strikers will score goals at the Euros. We have good strikers and with Ryan Christie able to play up front, there are plenty of options.
“It is good to see young Scottish players doing well and getting their chance. Nisbet came on and made an impression, he did well.
“You’d imagine Adams and Lyndon Dykes will play, but Nisbet will be champing at the bit and looking to make an impact as a sub if he gets on. All he can do is what he did against Holland, come on and score goals - if he does that you give yourself a chance.
“Scotland showed against Holland they are a good side who have a lot of good players so hopefully with a wee bit of luck we can have a good tournament.”
Steven MacLean was speaking at the launch of the St Johnstone season ticket campaign for 2021/22.
Saints fans can get their tickets to see the Cup Double winners next season from the official club website at https://www.perthstjohnstonefc.co.uk/tickets
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