Scotland: Steve Clarke future plans and Ollie McBurnie ruled out

But despite scoring twice as many goals as Stewart in the Championship this season, McBurnie has not been placed.

McBurnie will have the chance to add more and help his side into the Premier League in Saturday’s play-off final, which will now be against Middlesbrough, after Stewart sent Southampton off for spying on the opposition.

Clarke revealed he had conversations with a few players who didn’t make the squad, but McBurney was definitely not among them.

The Scotland head coach was reminded when McBurney publicly revealed that he had called him earlier to ask about his own five-year exile from the national set-up.

“I thought it was a personal conversation, to be honest,” Clark said. “It shouldn’t have gone to the media.”

On whether there was a personality clash with McBurnie, Clarke added: “You know the way I work – I tend to stick with the players I’ve been with before.

“I trust them, they know what I expect from them and that’s it. It’s a natural selection process, normal in my head anyway, maybe not normal in everyone else’s.”

Later in the day, McBurnie told The Sun “a guy in the squad messaged me this morning” because he didn’t want the striker to learn the news from the media.

He claimed he had “not heard anything” directly from Clarke and admitted it was “difficult” because he “did everything I could to get into that team and I came up short”.

Asked about his own contract, Clarke cryptically revealed “there will be plenty of time to talk about me, for better or for worse”.

After seven years in charge, Clarke is out of contract after the tournament and has indicated he wants to resolve his situation before the June 11 kick-off.

When pressed that he had previously been clear that he wanted to clarify the situation before leaving for the US, Clarke replied: “Hopefully, yes, that will be it. I’m sure it will be.”