Scotland ‘can’t afford’ more injuries ahead of Euros – Carver

John Carver has urged his Scotland players to not do anything “silly” in an attempt to avoid further injuries ahead of Euro 2024.

Steve Clarke’s side will be without key players such as Lewis Ferguson, Aaron Hickey and Nathan Patterson in Germany.

As Scotland prepare for friendlies with Gibraltar and Finland in the build-up to the opening game with the hosts on 14 July, assistant boss Carver wants the squad to be smart in their decisions.

“I had to say them this morning ‘enjoy what you’re doing, be careful, but don’t do anything silly’,” he said.

“The last thing we need is losing any more players. We’ve lost two or three top players for us already, we can’t afford to lose any more.”

After failing to win a game in their first major tournament appearance since 1998 in Euro 2020, Carver insists Scotland will strive to better their record this time round.

“There’s a huge excitement,” he added.

“Driving up here it felt different when you think about what we had to deal with the previous Euros in Covid, we hadn’t qualified for [over] 20 years.

“Let’s not forget we were all disappointed in the previous Euros. There’s an excitement there, but a lot of determined to do better than we did.

“We’ve got to control that excitement.”