Lawrence Shankland still harbours hope of playing for Scotland at World Cup

Hearts captain Lawrence Shankland has admitted next summer’s World Cup is still on his radar even though he has not played for Scotland for 11 months.

The 30-year-old striker won the most recent of his 16 caps as a substitute in the 2-1 Nations League victory in Poland last November, with a dip in form last season leading to him being left out of Steve Clarke squad for the March, June and September camps.

Despite notching seven goals already this term for a table-topping Hearts side and being named William Hill Premiership Player of the Month for September on Tuesday, Shankland was again omitted for this month’s World Cup qualifiers against Greece and Belarus.

“I think you always want to be involved if you can,” the forward told Sky Sports. “Obviously there’s a World Cup not too far round the corner as well. Hopefully the boys can go and get the results and I’ll keep doing what I’m doing at club level and if the opportunity arises again, you just stay ready for it.

“I think for everybody in the world who’s Scottish, they’d want to go to a World Cup. Of course, I had the experience of being at the Euros in the last campaign, so you always just have to stay ready for it.”

Shankland and his Hearts team-mates came under fire from supporters last season as they languished in the bottom six for the entire campaign before finishing seventh. They are currently two points clear of Celtic at the top of the table after seven league matches.

“It’s been a great start,” said Shankland. “Obviously this many games into the season, to get the points that we’ve got on the table is always important. There’s a really positive feel about the place.

“It’s a good feeling to be up there now. Off the back of last season there was a lot of frustration, so I think the boys are just enjoying where we are at the minute.

“They’d much rather be where we are now than where we were last season. I think we need to enjoy these moments when football’s going well because it can be difficult at times. Everyone’s feeling really positive. We deserve to enjoy it, don’t we?”