IT is to be hoped Kieran Tierney and Steve Clarke can get over this blip in their relationship.
But at this point it can't be said with any great certainty they will. Deep down the Scotland boss would have known he was risking more than just a potential backlash from back home when he chose to leave the Arsenal full-back out of his starting line-up in Athens.
He was effectively putting Tierney's unswerving commitment to the cause on the line too.
At 27 there certainly ought to be plenty of years left in a Scotland shirt for the prodigal son who will complete an emotional return to Celtic in the coming months.
But exactly how he feels about the national team and its manager may now have to be factored into the equation where Tierney's international career is concerned.
If his nose was put sufficiently out of joint by being dumped on Clarke's bench for the first leg of Scotland's Nations League play-off against Greece, then Tierney may start to wonder if he's ever going to be fully appreciated again from this point forward.
And given the cold-shoulder treatment he's been subjected to at the Emirates by Mikel Arteta over these last couple of years, could he really be blamed for feeling a bit unloved? Perhaps even slightly resentful?
Let's not forget, we are dealing here with a player who has put his body through the wringer for club and country ever since bursting onto the scene at Parkhead all these years ago. Few have been prepared to go through so much suffering in order to pull on a shirt, whichever its colour.
But Clarke made clear the scale of Tierney's importance to Scotland's side when he redesigned an entire formation for the sole purpose of including Tierney and Andy Robertson in the same starting XI.
It was a bespoke arrangement that copper-bottomed Tierney's status as a player who, when available, simply had to be selected.
And no matter how you care to slice it, all of that changed the other night when Clarke chose to stick with the back four which suited his side so well throughout its first campaign in the top flight of this competition. And left Tierney among the reinforcements.
Clarke said later that he had pretty much made his mind up on this weighty decision at the start of the week but added that he wanted to take a look for himself on the training pitch before setting his tactical plan in stone.
It must be said also the manager was proved absolutely correct to stick to his guns as Scotland got in and out of the ancient capital with a win for the ages.
It was a big call - a horribly awkward one to have to handle.
But the 1-0 first-leg win was all the justification Clarke required.
It was nine months since Tierney limped out of his team at the Euros in Germany and over that time Clarke has had to find a way of adjusting to being without him.
He found it. It worked. And now he seems likely to stick with it, especially given the nature of Scotland's performance against the Greeks.
For 45 minutes his players dovetailed perfectly as a unit all over the pitch and the calmness and composure of their play did not suggest they were missing a key component.
They could have been two or three up before the interval against a side soaring up through Europe's ranks over the last couple of seasons.
Then after the break, when the Greeks found their own A game, Scotland resisted them as if their lives depended on it.
Clarke's back four was bordering on the...
But at this point it can't be said with any great certainty they will. Deep down the Scotland boss would have known he was risking more than just a potential backlash from back home when he chose to leave the Arsenal full-back out of his starting line-up in Athens.
He was effectively putting Tierney's unswerving commitment to the cause on the line too.
At 27 there certainly ought to be plenty of years left in a Scotland shirt for the prodigal son who will complete an emotional return to Celtic in the coming months.
But exactly how he feels about the national team and its manager may now have to be factored into the equation where Tierney's international career is concerned.
If his nose was put sufficiently out of joint by being dumped on Clarke's bench for the first leg of Scotland's Nations League play-off against Greece, then Tierney may start to wonder if he's ever going to be fully appreciated again from this point forward.
And given the cold-shoulder treatment he's been subjected to at the Emirates by Mikel Arteta over these last couple of years, could he really be blamed for feeling a bit unloved? Perhaps even slightly resentful?
Let's not forget, we are dealing here with a player who has put his body through the wringer for club and country ever since bursting onto the scene at Parkhead all these years ago. Few have been prepared to go through so much suffering in order to pull on a shirt, whichever its colour.
But Clarke made clear the scale of Tierney's importance to Scotland's side when he redesigned an entire formation for the sole purpose of including Tierney and Andy Robertson in the same starting XI.
It was a bespoke arrangement that copper-bottomed Tierney's status as a player who, when available, simply had to be selected.
And no matter how you care to slice it, all of that changed the other night when Clarke chose to stick with the back four which suited his side so well throughout its first campaign in the top flight of this competition. And left Tierney among the reinforcements.
Clarke said later that he had pretty much made his mind up on this weighty decision at the start of the week but added that he wanted to take a look for himself on the training pitch before setting his tactical plan in stone.
It must be said also the manager was proved absolutely correct to stick to his guns as Scotland got in and out of the ancient capital with a win for the ages.
It was a big call - a horribly awkward one to have to handle.
But the 1-0 first-leg win was all the justification Clarke required.
It was nine months since Tierney limped out of his team at the Euros in Germany and over that time Clarke has had to find a way of adjusting to being without him.
He found it. It worked. And now he seems likely to stick with it, especially given the nature of Scotland's performance against the Greeks.
For 45 minutes his players dovetailed perfectly as a unit all over the pitch and the calmness and composure of their play did not suggest they were missing a key component.
They could have been two or three up before the interval against a side soaring up through Europe's ranks over the last couple of seasons.
Then after the break, when the Greeks found their own A game, Scotland resisted them as if their lives depended on it.
Clarke's back four was bordering on the...
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Daily Record (Digital) - 1 Issue, March 22, 2025