Derek McInnes urges Lawrence Shankland to hold onto World Cup dream

Hearts manager Derek McInnes has told Lawrence Shankland to keep hold of his World Cup dream, despite missing out on the latest Scotland squad.

Shankland put himself in the frame for a recall ahead of October’s World Cup qualifiers against Greece and Belarus after hitting seven goals in his first 10 matches of the season.

However, Scotland head coach Steve Clarke named a very settled squad after starting the campaign with four points from two matches and stuck with Che Adams, Lyndon Dykes, Kieron Bowie and George Hirst as his strike options.

Shankland has scored three goals in 16 internationals with his most recent appearance coming in November last year.

When asked if he was surprised Shankland had not made the cut, McInnes said: “I was hoping that he would be and I had a brief chat with Lawrence on the back of the conversation I had with Steve.

“But Scotland’s two strikers particularly did well last time out and Steve said that, he was pleased with Dykes and Adams, and there are another couple of strikers.

“Listen, the motivation for Lawrence and all the players involved with Scotland, whether they are in this squad or not, is to try and get involved in a World Cup.

“I don’t want Lawrence or anybody else to lose sight of that.”

Clarke earlier stated that the 30-year-old was “always close” to the squad.

“Obviously I know Lawrence very well, I know what he can bring to the squad,” the Scotland boss said.

“I just felt that the forward players I had in the last camp did well in the camp, did well in the games and have done well for their clubs in between, so I didn’t see too much reason to change.”

The only addition to Clarke’s squad was goalkeeper Craig Gordon, who replaced Hearts team-mate Zander Clark in the squad after the latter lost his club place to Alexander Schwolow.

Gordon has only managed a handful of consecutive training sessions this season following neck and hamstring injuries.

McInnes said: “I spoke with Steve and we were happy that he was fully fit and back training. Steve was keen to put him back in.

“We are really keen for Craig to be back fully fit and putting a body of work behind him in terms of training. It’s been a wee bit stop-start.

“Going away with Scotland will be good for him in terms of training every day, our boys will get a few days off during the international break. That will bolster his momentum of staying fit.”

Gordon’s prospects of winning his Hearts place back remain to be seen.

“We are 12 games into the season and we have not had him available, so we took it upon ourselves to sign Alexander and we feel that was the right decision,” McInnes said. “We are blessed with good goalkeepers.

“There was a time a few weeks ago we had three goalkeepers out injured. So If we can keep them fit, then I have got a problem, but I’ve not had them all fit.”