Alex McLeish is desperate for Leigh Griffiths to return to the international fold next month.
The hoops striker opted to concentrate on his fitness while the Steven Naismith-Johny Russell dream ticket flopped against Israel and Portugal.
Scotland need to take four points from the matches against Albania and Israel if they are to top their group with the pressure growing on McLeish.
After six defeats from eight matches the former Rangers (IL) boss is under growing pressure to deliver results with Griffiths an obvious solution to his side’s problems in front of goal.
“I want anyone back in the squad who can score a lot of goals and be a real threat and give me options,” the Scotland boss told The Sun.
“I had a chat with Leigh last week and he said that physically he had to get better. That’s an individual choice. But I admire him for that.
“He wants to get to a level of fitness when he can blow Brendan Rodgers away and blew the nation away and hopefully fire the goals to get him to where he wants to be fitness-wise.”
Ollie McBurnie started against Portugal yesterday with Naismith but made no impact before being replaced by Gary Mackay-Steven after 76 minutes.
While McBurnie is clearly way short of international level any striker would struggle to impress in McLeish’s side with less than 20,000 fans turning up at Hampden for a friendly against attractive opponents.