The importance of Arsenal left-back Kieran Tierney to his country, Scotland, has once again become the subject of discussion after he missed their Euro 2020 defeat to the Czech Republic.
Tierney is arguably one of the best left-backs in the world and remains relevant for club and country.
However, he has been dogged by injury problems since he joined Arsenal in 2019.
The defender has remained one of the Gunners best players and he is also a key member of the Scotland National team.
He was fit enough to be named in their 26-man squad for the Euros and prepared with his national teammate for the games.
In a tough group that also includes England and Croatia, Scotland needs all their best players in top form to reach the next round.
However, they lost their first game and Tierney was a notable absence from the match and former Scotland star, Ally McCoist admits that the team missed the Arsenal man.
It was certainly a blow for us,’ McCoist said on ITV as quoted by Mail Sport.
‘To be honest with you I don’t really think we really got going for 15/20 minutes.
‘We huffed and puffed, had a lot of effort, but we missed a little built of guile, certainly a little bit of drive that Tierney gives us down the left-hand side.
‘In all honesty, I don’t think there was an awful lot in the game, but we were beaten by two bits of absolute quality. The second one in particular, brilliance.
‘We had chances, but you’ve got to take them, you have to take them. That’s the little bit of quality that we lack in front of goal.
‘At the same time, no excuses. You can say you’re unlucky, but we have to take the chances.
‘I think we did OK today. I didn’t think there was an awful lot between the sides, but they had a little bit of quality and you could see that, particularly in front of goal.’
