Craig Halkett deserves his Scotland call after proving his value over Rangers-bound John Souttar - Ryan Stevenson

Craig Halkett fully deserves his call into the Scotland squad.

And if Barrie McKay keeps his form and scores outrageous goals like he did against Livingston, he’ll be next.

When I think across Scotland and the players in any position who could or might have been called up who hadn’t been before, I don’t think anyone deserves it more than Craig.

He’ll probably slot silently into the camp because he just quietly goes about his business. Gets his head down and performs.

Craig just gets on with it and you only realise how big a player he is for Hearts when he is not in the side. I can pay him no higher compliment in terms of Hearts to say I feel he’s a bigger miss for the club when he’s absent than John Souttar.

That’s nothing against John, it’s just how valuable I see Craig to the team. Throughout this full season, there has been such a song and dance about John coming back and doing well.

Then there was the Rangers saga with John through January about: Is he going or staying?

John is a top player and I am taking nothing away from him, but I feel Hearts have missed Craig more when he’s been out than they did John when he was out. That’s how I see it.

When Craig was out, you could see there was a massive gap and something missing.

When John was out and Craig was still there, I don’t feel it was as big a hole.

Barrie aside, Craig’s been Hearts’ outstanding player this season.

The only thing that has been missing for Barrie has been goals, but that first one of the season against Livi last Saturday was absolutely ridiculous.

I’m not kidding, I’d have broken my hip if I’d tried to get a leg that high.

That just shows the quality he has got and the talent he has.

I should say, that win capped a routine success over