Scotland striker Dykes ruled out of Euro 2024

Scotland striker Lyndon Dykes will miss Euro 2024 after sustaining a training ground injury on Friday.

The 28-year-old has netted nine times in 36 caps and played in all eight Euro qualifiers, starting five and scoring once.

Scotland open the tournament against hosts Germany on 14 June.

Che Adams and Lawrence Shankland are the only other centre-forwards in Steve Clarke’s squad.

“All the boys are gutted for Lyndon, it’s just a freak thing to happen,” midfielder Ryan Christie told BBC Scotland a few hours prior to confirmation of Dykes’ enforced withdrawal.

“We’ve had a few injuries already, so it’s frustrating.

“He’s been off for a while with the Championship [finishing on 4 May] and I know how hard he worked on his weeks off to prepare for this tournament.

“It’s just one of those things. There’s not much we can say to him at this point. We’re just trying to get behind him and I’m sure he’ll be supporting on.

“It adds another reason for us to be desperate to do well for him and the rest of the country.”

Scotland are already missing Brentford’s Aaron Hickey, fellow right-back Nathan Patterson of Everton and Bologna midfielder Lewis Ferguson through injury.

Assistant manager John Carver said on Thursday that everyone who joined up with the provisional 28-man squad was “in good condition” but urged them not to do anything “silly” in training as Scotland “can’t afford” more injuries.

Southampton midfielder Stuart Armstrong and Rangers centre-half John Souttar trained separately from the main group on Thursday after sitting out the end of the season with their clubs.

Manchester United midfielder Scott McTominay, Nottingham Forest centre-back Scott McKenna, Celtic left-back Greg Taylor and Liverpool winger Ben Doak were absent from the first day of training.

Uncapped Doak only recently resumed training at his club following knee surgery in December while midfielder Ryan Jack has only played 13 minutes for Rangers since 10 February.