Scotland training game against Norway cancelled

Norway have confirmed a training match against Scotland on Monday has been cancelled because of a couple of minor fitness concerns in Steve Clarke's squad.

The closed-doors game - which was due to be played at Scotland's training camp in Charlotte - was set up to give fringe players of each team game time before the World Cup.

But Norway, who face Scotland's group opponents Morocco in a friendly in New Jersey on Sunday (20:00 BST), have been informed the bounce game is now off.

Norway manager Stale Solbakken said: "The idea of playing Scotland was that we could get some minutes in the legs of the guys who don't play in the Morocco game. The cancellation means I will make more changes in our game against Morocco."

Norwegian FA media manager Morten Morisbak Skjonsberg said: "It is a poorly-kept secret that we were supposed to play a training match against Scotland on Monday.

"Today we learned that Scotland unfortunately had to withdraw from the agreement due to injuries."

Speaking later on Sunday, Scotland head coach Steve Clarke said: "It was just going to be a training game for an hour at our training ground.

"We picked up one or two niggles last week and decided it wasn't worth the risk."