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Arsenal defender Kieran Tierney admits it is painful that he will be watching the World Cup for the next few weeks rather than playing at it.
THE LOWDOWN: DIFFICULT YEAR
Tierney and Scotland won’t be at the World Cup in Qatar after they failed to qualify from their qualifying group. They finished second in Group F behind Denmark, setting up a play-off against Ukraine who won the tie 3-1.
On a personal note, Tierney hasn’t enjoyed his football this year. He has struggled for game time under Mikel Arteta this term because of the arrival of Oleksandr Zinchenko as well as recurring injury problems.
But with the World Cup break on, the fullback will be hoping to stage a comeback in the second half of the season.
THE LATEST: TIERNEY’S PAIN
Kieran Tierney says it hurts to be at home watching the World Cup for the next four weeks rather than playing at it.
As part of Scotland’s activities to end the year, a friendly was scheduled with Turkey over the past week. Tierney played the full 90 minutes for Scotland on Wednesday night as his side lost 2-1 at the Diyarbakır Stadyumu in the Turkish district of Kayapinar.
Speaking after the match, Tierney insisted that there nothing to look into as per the game.
“There’s no point in looking into it too much,” Tierney said
“We got beat. Turkey are a good team. We were playing away from home. These things can happen in football. I wouldn’t read too much into it. We’ve got a few months to go [until the start of the Euro 2024 campaign], but we are positive.
“We can’t work on anything for the next few months with no training. We need to stick in at club level, work hard and make sure we are ready for coming back.
“It’s not nice to get beat. We wanted to keep the unbeaten run going. So it’s not great. But we know we are going to go to hostile places and come up against tough teams with good players and a loud crowd. So it was an experience for us, one we can learn from.”
After failing to make it to Qatar, Tierney will be with Arsenal while many of his teammates are in Qatar.
“It hurts, it does,” he admitted.
“At Arsenal, you see 10 or 11 players going away and you just wish it was going to be you. And us as a country.
“We’re gutted but we will use that as a learning curve. We will turn that hurt into a positive and try to change it next time.”
THE VERDICT: NEEDS TO GET GOING
Tierney has lost a lot of time to injury in the first part of the season, which made him miss preseason and crucial games.
Here is a chance for him to get into shape before the season resumes next month.
