NORWAY WE'RE TAKING THAT!

McGinn hits back at criticism over axed bounce game ahead of opener

- BY MICHAEL ROBERTSON

JOHN McGINN has launched a stinging response to claims Scotland have acted “unprofessionally" by scrapping a training ground bounce game against Norway at the 11th hour.

The Scottish camp have been attempting to douse down a fiery pre-tournament war of words after arriving at their sun baked World Cup base here in North Carolina - where they were scheduled to have one last competitive session against Erling Haaland’s side.

Norway boss Stale Solbakken has branded the U-turn as “unprofessional” and operations manager, former Fulham defender Brede Hangeland, then doubled down by insisting Scotland's behaviour over the episode has been “embarrassing” and “weak”.

But McGinn blasted back when those comments were put to him here at Scotland's state of the art tournament base camp in Charlotte.

And he insisted they would have understood the reasons behind the call-off if they had done their own research on the last-minute injury nightmare which has ruled Billy Gilmour out of Steve Clarke's squad.

The Aston Villa skipper said: “I would say 75 per cent of the squad haven't seen it. I did.