Jon McLaughlin was snubbed again by Scotland boss Steve Clarke against Croatia as the Rangers keeper’s hopes of ever making a major tournament appearance fade.
McLaughlin was included in Clarke’s squad for the Euros after a strange season at club level during which he was near flawless but was still left relatively short of playing time due to the brilliance of Allan McGregor.
Coming into the Euros, there was a level of uncertainty about who would be Scotland’s no.1, but the manager opted to stick with penalty shootout hero David Marshall.
Craig Gordon’s appearance in a warm-up fixture showed him to be second choice, with McLaughlin realistically the least favoured of the trio.
He watched all three Group D matches from the bench and Scotland’s elimination-confirming 3-1 defeat to Croatia in the last of those means it’s now certain that the Ger won’t appear at these Championships.
There must also now be question marks about whether or not he’ll ever get the opportunity to appear at a major tournament.
At 33, age is on his side relatively speaking, as Marshall (36) and Gordon (38) are both his seniors.
However, there were over 20 years between Scotland’s last successful qualification and Euro 2020 and especially after a slow start to their World Cup qualifying campaign, there’s no guarantee that they will now become tournament regulars.
Marshall and Gordon’s respective plans regarding retirement, whatever they are, may have a big impact on McLaughlin’s international future, but if they carry on for now, he must ask himself how long he’s willing to turn up to camp after camp with little chance of being selected.
One of McLaughlin’s Ibrox teammates has had a very different experience at the Championships and was heavily praised by the BBC commentary team earlier this week.
