Craig Levein tips Danny Wilson for Scotland call

Barry Anderson

FORMER Scotland manager Craig Levein expects Hearts captain Danny Wilson to earn an international recall in the very near future.

imperious form since the start of the season and Levein said he must be on the radar of his successor at Hampden Park, Gordon Strachan.

Wilson did not make the squad for next month’s World Cup qualifiers against Belgium and Macedonia. Nonetheless, Levein predicted he will soon add to his five Scotland caps, the last of which came in September 2011.

“I can see Danny getting back involved with Scotland,” said Levein. “It’s difficult for him now because he’s missed a period of time but I think he can get back there.

“Grant Hanley has now become an important player for Scotland. I saw him and Wilson as being an ideal partnership in defence – Hanley with his pace and aggression and Danny with his intelligence and footballing ability.

“They give you that balance between left foot and right foot and a combination of the things you need to play centre-back. I would love to see Danny get back to international level.

“With the way he’s going just now, I’m sure Gordon will be looking at him at some point. We aren’t overly blessed with centre-backs at international level.

“He played for me against Denmark at Hampden in a friendly and was excellent.

“He went down to England and who can blame him for that? He would probably still say it was the right thing to do but at 19 or 20, you’ve got to play first-team football. For me, that’s a critical period in any player’s career. If you aren’t playing at your club, you should be out on loan somewhere playing first-team football. Danny has kind of missed that. The good thing about coming to Hearts is that Danny is back to becoming an important player who is almost guaranteed to play. For me, his career has stalled because he hasn’t played [at Liverpool]. Now he’s back playing, I think you’ll see him kick on and become a really good player.

“He’ll handle the captaincy at Hearts no problem. He’s a very sensible, down-to-earth and level-headed guy.”

Taken from the Scotsman