What Steve Clarke told Jack Hendry about Saudi transfer as defender's Scotland standing WON'T be affected

Steve Clarke has assured Jack Hendry that moving to Saudi Arabia WON’T hinder his Scotland career.

The 28-year-old defender secured a life-changing £6.5million move to Steven Gerrard’s Al Ettifaq this summer. In the Saudi Pro League, Hendry will come up against superstar strikers like Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Aleksandar Mitrovic, who have all gone to the Middle East. But Clarke has revealed the former Celtic centre-back consulted him before agreeing on the deal. And the Scotland boss told him that, as long as he’s playing well in Saudi Arabia, he’ll continue to pick him.

Clarke said: “I spoke to Jack Hendry. He gave me a call. I wasn’t going to say: ‘I’m not going to pick you because you’re going to Saudi’. He is going there with top quality players.”

Clarke will lead Scotland into a massive double-header that starts with a crucial qualifier against Cyprus before a Hampden friendly with England to mark the 150th anniversary of association football. It comes four years on from a 2-1 victory over the Cypriots at the dawn of the Clarke era. But, even when times were tough back when he took over, Clarke saw glimmers of hope.

At the time it didn’t feel like that unspectacular 2-1 over the Cypriots meant too much. But it did to the manager. And as he prepares for one of the biggest nights of his life on Friday, with a victory almost certain to book Scotland’s place in Germany next summer, he insists it’s important to remember just how far they have come.

Clarke said: “We’ve continued to improve from then and that was always the aim. It was never going to be a quick process because it’s
international football. There are gaps in between games and you have to try to build a squad. But