Scotland players won’t be feeling any fatigue says Sunsport’s Gordon Strachan

THEIR legs won’t feel tired. Not when their brains have been refreshed.

Don’t worry about Scotland’s players being jaded after two tough Group A games so far.

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Trust me, they’ll be mentally ready to go again in Sunday night’s crunch clash with Hungary.

And when your head is in a good place, it’s amazing how the rest of the body responds.

That’s what the 1-1 draw with Switzerland will have done for Steve Clarke’s players.

The lads will have seen the reaction from the supporters in Germany, as well as everyone back home.

Everything being said and written in the media and press had been really positive and that also filters through. It makes a difference.

Losing so heavily to Germany in the first game would have taken its toll. Everyone’s legs and minds would have felt heavy for days after it.

But had anyone walked into the changing room after the Swiss result, I guarantee you’d have seen a squad that would have felt they could have run straight back out on to the pitch and played again.

You can drink as much water as you want after a match. Get massages and rest up with all the latest advice from the sports science guys.

But those are minority gains, maybe only one or two per cent here or there.

It’s the majority gains that are important because without them the rest does not matter.

I could guzzle water for days on end and have my legs rubbed for hours and it wouldn’t make any difference.

Truth be told, you’d be as well rubbing my heid!

It’s about being prepared physically to cope with the demands of elite football, first and foremost, and all our boys are in that top bracket.

It’s then results that dictates how players feel about themselves, not how long they’ve been sleeping.

We used to be up all night, feeding the kids and getting about four hours of shut-eye. And we’d still go out and play the next day.

Try telling Sir Alex Ferguson you felt jaded.

I remember after we’d played about 376 games one season he barged into the dressing room and said, ‘I’ll tell you when you’re tired!’ — and walked straight back out.

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The ice-bath of the 1980s was the North Sea.

We’d be ordered to wade in with just our shorts on.

It didn’t make you feel any fitter, it was just that it was  so cold you felt no sensation below the waist.

People think I’m kidding about that, by the way, but  it’s true.

So I’ve no worries that fatigue could be an issue tonight. None whatsoever.

Steve talked about going  easier on the players in the training sessions in the last few days.

I read that’s something he had learned from the last Euros, when he admitted to overworking them.

The players will be fine. The likes of Callum McGregor and John McGinn are used to playing every few days anyway.

It’s maybe a new thing for Billy Gilmour, who is in the early stages of his career. But he’s young enough to go again.

There will be no holding him back after he was recalled to the side against Switzerland.

The chance to create history is there for these boys and they’ll be determined to go out and grab it.

That said, if any of them are like me, they maybe don’t know the true significance of this match. I was playing  golf this week with someone I worked with at Celtic and I said he was talking to  someone who didn’t realise we’d qualified for the last 16 of the Champions League in 2006!

Everyone was celebrating, which I thought was great.

But when I was asked by a TV reporter if I felt proud of the achievement, my reply was, ‘What achievement?’.

I had no idea. I had just been focusing so much on beating Manchester United that it went right over my head.

I actually have the quote framed somewhere, so it just shows how the mind works sometimes.

The Scotland lads will  probably be well aware of what’s at stake, I know that.

But they just have to focus on the match. Nothing else.

If they’re thinking about  anything it will be their first tackle, their first shot or their first pass.

I’m feeling good about it. Before the last game, I felt  sure our midfield four would do well against Switzerland.

Nothing happened in Cologne on Wednesday to make me think they can’t dominate again tonight in Stuttgart later.

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Gilmour and McGregor have a lovely understanding and  their ability to keep the ball is so important.

That gives licence to McGinn and Scott McTominay in the slightly advanced positions.

I’m optimistic like I was before, so much so that the  Strachan family are regathering to watch.

Around 14 of us got together for the opener against Germany and, obviously, that didn’t work out great.

In fact, there were only a couple of us left in the room by the end.

But I have a good feeling about this one, and also a feeling that we’ll all be there glued to the TV right until the last minute.

I actually have no doubts it will be a different outcome, to be perfectly honest with you.

It’s the opportunity of a  lifetime for a group of lads who’ve already given the nation some wonderful memories.

The whole country is behind them — and I, for one, believe they can do it.

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