World Cup: John McGinn reveals Scotland priority after Norway friendly row

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Evening Standard

·8 June 2026

World Cup: John McGinn reveals Scotland priority after Norway friendly row

Steve Clarke was branded ‘unprofessional’ after calling off behind-closed-doors friendly citing injury concerns

John McGinn said Scotland must ‘look after No1’ after they came under fire for cancelling a planned friendly with Norway.

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Scotland had been due to face Norway in an hour-long training-ground friendly this week, but Steve Clarke’s side backed out at short notice after his squad picked up “one or two niggles” in training and “decided it wasn’t worth the risk.”

They were subsequently branded “unprofessional” by Norway boss Stale Solbakken, who added: "I don't think the injuries they're blaming came from the last training session. That's not the case. It's disappointing. But we have to live with that."

But McGinn has backed Clarke’s move, saying Scotland must put themselves first as they look to avoid tempting fate on the eve of their first World Cup campaign since 1998.

Scotland’s tournament preparations are underway at a training camp in North Carolina

PA

"Our job is to look after Scotland, Norway's job is to look after Norway,” he said in a press conference at Scotland’s North Carolina training camp.

"If they done their research, they'd know we lost a key part of our team recently, and we don't want to lose anyone else.

"We've got to look after number one."

The ‘key’ team-mate McGinn was referring to was Billy Gilmour, who was ruled out of the World Cup last month after suffering a knee injury in a friendly defeat of Curacao.

Billy Gilmour was ruled out of the World Cup with a knee injury in May

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In spite of Scotland’s fitness concerns, McGinn was in high spirits as Scotland continue their preparations for their first group stage match, where they will face Haiti in the small hours of Sunday morning for UK viewers.

He helped Aston Villa win the Europa League this season, and said he hopes his newfound big game experience will help him hit the ground running at the World Cup, where Scotland will face tough group stage opposition in Morocco and Brazil.

"I didn't play at my best in the last two major tournaments alongside probably some others in the group and these games, these tournaments you need your big players to pick them up in big moments.

"I think now I'll enjoy the excitement building up to it, but as it gets closer to the games I'll focus on the game and not the occasion and that's what I've learned not only at club level but international level.

John McGinn captained Aston Villa to Europa League glory in May

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"The more big experiences and big games you're involved in, you certainly adapt. You learn things that don't work and you learn things that work and I feel as if I'm more ready to prepare for these big games."

After the friendly row, a spokesperson for the Scotland national team told PA: “The behind-closed-doors training game was organised and arranged between the respective team managers – not the head coaches – and this was the same process we followed when we regrettably had to cancel on Saturday.

“We have had some injuries during our previous friendlies and when it became apparent that a training game would bring greater risk than potential preparatory reward, we alerted the Norway team manager as soon as possible.

“We believe this was the right and consistent process. The game was also due to be behind closed doors and not announced publicly – so we were surprised when news of the game broke via Norwegian media.”