Soccer
Scott McTominay is set to be fit to feature for Scotland in their World Cup opener against Haiti.
The Napoli star had been suffering with a stomach illness, and travelled to Boston separately from the rest of Steve Clarke’s squad.
However, McTominay took part in training on Friday and Clarke has confirmed the former Manchester United midfielder is good to go.
Clarke said McTominay was “perfect and ready to go”, but also stressed he does not want to be reliant on one player.
“I’ve got 26 superstars here,” he said. “To try to put so much on to one person is not fair.
“We’ve built everything we’ve done over the last seven years on the squad, the team, everyone being together and playing their part at certain times.
“We are delighted with Scott’s abilities and what he can bring to the team. But we are going to need another 15 to bring the same if we want to have a positive tournament.”
Boston, MA #FIFAWorldCup | @FIFAWorldCup pic.twitter.com/ss8Vlg3Mex
— Scotland National Team (@ScotlandNT) June 12, 2026
Scotland are competing at the World Cup for the first time since 1998. They have never previously progressed beyond the group stage.
After taking on Haiti, Scotland face Morocco and Brazil in Group C, so Clarke’s team will be hoping for a strong start.
Haiti are making their second appearance at a World Cup and their first since the 1974 edition.
The 52-year-gap between Haiti’s first appearance (1974) and second appearance (2026) at the World Cup is the joint-fourth longest in the tournament’s history, behind Wales (64 years between 1958 and 2022), Egypt (56 years between 1934 and 1990) and Norway (56 years between 1938 and 1994).
Among sides to play 10 games in World Cup qualifying, only Bermuda (31) and Nicaragua (16) conceded more goals than Haiti (13), as well as conceding the third-largest amount of expected goals (11.7).
Clarke, however, is not underestimating the threat Haiti could pose.
“It’s important we respect the opposition, make sure we’re properly prepared, we play to the best of our ability and see what the result is,” Clarke said.
“We’ve watched Haiti very closely, we respect their abilities on the pitch. Since they’ve qualified, they’ve improved the squad.
“We think we know how they’ll play. We think we know their system. They have very dynamic players, especially the attacking players, so we have to be careful.”
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