Soccer: World Cup holds key for Hendry

Scotland manager Craig Brown has made it clear that Colin Hendry's international future depends on World Cup qualification.

Hendry, Scotland's inspirational skipper, has learned that the six-match ban that had threatened to end his international career had been halved.

Fifa heard an appeal by the player through his agent John Colquhoun and David Taylor, chief executive of the Scottish Football Association.

The reduction to three matches means the 35-year-old will miss Scotland's final group six qualifying matches.

Hendry would therefore have to hope his team-mates either qualify outright for Japan and Korea 2002 or are involved in the play-offs, for which Hendry would be available.

But if Scotland were to miss out then Brown would have little alternative but to plan for the future with younger players.

Brown said: "We will take stock and after the qualification is over we are either going to compete in the World Cup or there's a new start. We will wait and see what happens then."

The Bolton defender is coming to the end of an illustrious career but Brown insisted that age alone would not rule him out, and used world champions France as the example.

He said: "It would appear that age is no barrier when you look at other countries.

"The French team are all very experienced players and it's experience that is necessary at the top level."