John McGinn defends Scotland after Stale Solbakken attack on cancelled World Cup warm-up | OneFootball

John McGinn said Scotland were right to put their own interests first after Stale Solbakken branded a cancelled warm-up unprofessional.

The sides are both in North Carolina and had arranged a 60-minute behind-closed-doors game at Scotland’s training base in Charlotte on Monday. It was called off on Sunday because of injuries in the Scotland camp.

"It is unprofessional of Scotland." Solbakken told NRK. "It is unprofessional that the coach has not called me."

The Aston Villa captain argued Scotland had just lost Billy Gilmour before flying to the United States, several players had niggles and some had not trained, so avoiding further setbacks took priority. He added that any country would react the same, and that Norway would also cancel if they lost Erling Haaland or Martin Odegaard so close to Saturday.

"We have been working on that match for many months. It is embarrassing to cancel it a couple of days before," said Norway team manager Brede Hangeland.

The Scottish FA later explained the training game had been arranged between the respective team managers, not the head coaches. With injuries in earlier friendlies and fresh niggles, they judged the risk outweighed any preparatory benefit and were surprised the unannounced game emerged in Norwegian media.

Norway are based in Greensboro, about 90 miles from Scotland’s camp.

Source: ExpressAndStar.com