Scotland add Doohan & McKenna after five keepers ruled out

Yahoo

2 days ago

Scotland have called up free agent Ross Doohan and Bournemouth's 18-year-old Callan McKenna for Monday's friendly in Liechtenstein in an attempt to address their goalkeeping crisis.
Angus Gunn and Robby McCrorie have left the squad following Friday's defeat by Iceland.
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Cieran Slicker suffered a torrid debut at Hampden after replacing the injured Gunn, McCrorie having picked up a strain in the warm-up.
Scotland head coach Steve Clarke - who had previously warned that his lack of options in the position was a concern - admitted after the game he would be looking for "another goalkeeper in Scotland who's not on holiday".
With first-choice Craig Gordon, plus regular squad members Zander Clark and Liam Kelly, missing from the original squad through injury, the nation have been forced to turn to Doohan and McKenna.
Doohan, 27, is reportedly set to return to Celtic after leaving Aberdeen, where he played 18 times this term as was back-up to Dimitar Mitov, while McKenna has been officially added to the squad having trained with them last week.
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How did Scotland end up in this mess?
When Gunn went down injured six minutes into the Iceland game, Clarke had to summon 22-year-old Slicker, who was effectively his sixth-choice goalkeeper.
Only 64 seconds into his debut, the former Scotland Under-21 regular's attempt to clear a Kieran Tierney passback was picked up by Andri Gudjohnsen, who curled his drive over the stranded goalkeeper.
Former Manchester City youngster Slicker, who has never played a senior league game and only has 10 minutes of FA Cup football for Ipswich Town to his name in the season past, was visibly shaken.
Slicker was not the only culprit as Lewis Ferguson deflected the ball past him after the Scotland defence made a mess of clearing a corner to hand Iceland a 2-1 lead after John Souttar's equaliser.
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However, the young goalkeeper looked badly at fault as Victor Palsson's header bypassed his flailing arms for the third.
Clarke was left to conclude that "he wasn't quite ready" for such a big occasion and that "I really feel for him".
Who is Ross Doohan?
Doohan is a product of Celtic's youth set-up and had loan spells with Cumbernauld Colts, Greenock Morton, Ayr United, Ross County, Dundee United and Tranmere Rovers before joining the League Two club permanently in 2022.
After a only half a season there, the Scotland Under-21 cap moved up to League One with Forest Green Rovers, but following their relegation, he joined Aberdeen the following summer.
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Doohan has been the back up at Pittodrie, playing only twice in his first season and 18 times in the latest campaign while Bulgaria's Mitov was injured.
With his contract expiring, he has left Pittodrie and is being linked with a return to Celtic, where the 27-year-old would likely be back-up to Kasper Schmeichel and Viljami Sinisalo.
Who is Callan McKenna?
McKenna came through the youth ranks with Hibernian, then Queen's Park, making his professional debut for the latter as a 16-year-old in a Scottish League Cup tie against East Fife in July 2023.
Following reports of interest from Premier League and Championship clubs, he was sold to Bournemouth in February 2024 having made just nine senior appearances - mainly in the Scottish second tier.
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Since moving south, the Scotland age-group keeper has been in Bournemouth's development side and was with Clarke's squad for this camp as a training player.