Injury rules out skipper Ferguson

Scotland captain Barry Ferguson has been ruled out of tomorrow night’s friendly with Sweden because of injury.

Fellow midfielder Gary Holt and defender Gary Caldwell are also likely to miss out on fitness grounds and caretaker manager Tommy Burns has moved to bring in four players from the stand-by list to fill the gaps.

They are left-sided duo Steven Hammell of Motherwell and Richard Hughes of Portsmouth, Caldwell’s older brother and fellow defender, Steve, of Sunderland and Dunfermline midfielder Barry Nicholson.

With Colin Cameron, Steven Thompson and Gary Naysmith already ruled out and Paul Dickov and Andy Gray also short of fitness it was all change in the squad.

But Burns revealed that his initial starting eleven would only be missing Ferguson.

He added: “I would have liked to have brought in another striker or possibly another two but all the other strikers were injured.”

It will therefore be an inexperienced side that takes on the Swedes, who will be without a number of top performers themselves including former Celtic striker Henrik Larsson, now at Barcelona.

Celtic’s teenage goalkeeper David Marshall will start as will Aberdeen duo Kevin McNaughton and Russell Anderson.

Hibernian’s Ian Murray is another starter on the ground where he plays his club football and former Hibs striker Kenny Miller, now of Wolves is another starter.

Ferguson’s key role in the heart of midfield will be taken by Jackie McNamara of Celtic.

Burns was hoping the Tartan Army would turn out in force to back his young players following some disappointing recent performances that led to the removal of Berti Vogts from the manager’s job two weeks ago.

The Scots played at Easter Road at the end of last season and enjoyed enthusiastic backing in a 4-1 thrashing of Trinidad and Tobago.

Burns said: “Every time we have played there the support has been fantastic.

“Hopefully, that will be the same. I hope the fans will just come and support us and there will be a lot of young players.”