Scotland v Japan LIVE: Team news as hosts face tough pre-World Cup friendly at Hampden

Kick-off at Hampden will be at 5pm on Saturday 28 March.

It will be shown live on BBC One Scotland, as well as on BBC iPlayer.

Scotland XI: Gunn; Patterson, Hanley, McKenna, Robertson; McGinn, Ferguson, Gilmour, Christie; McTominay; Adams

Clarke will be without his No 1 goalkeeper in the 43-year-old Craig Gordon, who faces a race to be fit for the World Cup due to a shoulder injury. His Hearts team-mate, and a scorer in that 4-2 win over Denmark, striker Lawrence Shankland is also unavailable as he builds up his match fitness. Winger Ben Gannon-Doak is another who has only recently returned from injury and doesn’t make the squad, with right back Aaron Hickey also unavailable due to a hamstring injury.

Angus Gunn is likely to start in goal, despite not playing since Scotland’s win over Belarus in October, while Everton right-back Nathan Patterson is back. Kilmarnock’s on-loan forward Findlay Curtis has been handed his first call-up and there have also been recalls for Middlesbrough’s Tommy Conway and Wrexham’s Don Hyam.

Scotland resume their preparations for this summer’s World Cup – and play their first game since qualifying for the tournament – as they host Japan at Hampden in the first of two friendlies this week.

Now Clarke will oversee his final camp before naming his final World Cup squad, with Scotland arranging games against Japan at Hampden and the Ivory Coast at Everton’s Hill Dickinson Stadium on Tuesday.

Scotland have stuck with a settled squad as the countdown to that crucial opening game against Haiti on 14 June begins.

Hello and welcome to The Independent’s live blog coverage of Scotland’s friendly against Japan this evening.

Steve Clarke’s side play their first game since dramatically sealing World Cup qualification against Denmark in November, and this friendly comes against a talented Japanese side that includes the likes of Take Kubo, Ao Tanaka, Daizen Maeda and Karou Mitoma.

This means it will be a suitable test as Scotland begin to intensify their preparations for the World Cup, and we’ll have all the latest build-up, teams news and updates from Hampden right here.