Matt Elliott, the Leicester City defender, seems certain to begin an international career at the age of 29 by playing for Scotland against France next week.
Elliott, Roehampton-born but who has a Scottish grandmother, was named in Craig Brown's 26man squad yesterday for tomorrow week's friendly against the World Cup hosts in St Etienne.
Leicester have a Premiership match at home to Wimbledon next Monday, which means that the defender will probably not start the match in France. But he will probably be given his first cap at some stage of it.
"One of our coaches at the SFA, Frank Coulston, will be at Leicester to drive the players involved up to Glasgow immediately after," said Brown. "Neil Sullivan and Brian McAllister of Wimbledon are the others.
"I've already spoken to Matt and told him that, if he is fit after the Wimbledon match, he'll be on the bench against France. Again, it could be unfair to play him from the start, because he will have had very little time to prepare."
With the regular central defender Colin Hendry of Blackburn certain to miss the match because of injury, Elliott will be given this early opportunity to make himself a candidate for next summer's World Cup finals.
