Dom Hyam ready for Erling Haaland battle as Scotland stopper tells Steve Clarke why Norway superstar won't faze him

With Erling Haaland waiting for you, it might be tempting to deliberately stay out of your gaffer’s eye line.

But Dominic Hyam doesn’t see it that way. And if he gets the call from Steve Clarke on Scotland’s bench to go on and shackle Norway’s superstar striker, he’ll be ready. At club level, he has already tested himself against the likes of Brentford and England striker Ivan Toney and Fulham’s Serbian hitman Aleksandar Mitrovic.

He knows Manchester City’s superstar No.9 will be a different proposition altogether. But the big defender certainly won’t be fazed by taking on Haaland in Oslo next weekend. Hyam is unlikely to start for Clarke’s side but the Scotland manager is already without Grant Hanley at the back. The Blackburn Rovers man is battling it out with the likes of Jack Hendry, Ryan Porteous and his old Scotland Under-19 partner John Souttar for a place in the side.

And he’s adamant that if Clarke needs him for the vital Euro 2024 qualifier against the Norwegians, he won’t be fazed by Haaland’s presence in their attack. Hyam said: “There is no denying that he’s a quality player but they’ve got a few. And I’m sure we can cause them problems as well. In my first year in the Championship with Coventry City, Toney scored a bucketload of goals and I played against him.

“That was tough because he’s a really good player. Then a couple of years ago I faced Mitrovic. He scored even more goals that season. Tony scored four goals in two games against me – but we actually managed to shut Mitrovic out. He got 43 goals that year for Fulham but didn’t score against me in the two games. So I’ve come up against quality strikers before. But Haaland would be on a different level and I would relish going up against him next