Scotland beat Curacao in World Cup warm-up but major injury concern emerges

Striker Lawrence Shankland scored a brace, Findlay Curtis netted his first Scotland goal and Ryan Christie converted an 81st-minute penalty to give Steve Clarke’s men a much-needed win ahead of their trip to the finals.

However, there is now an injury concern surrounding midfielder Billy Gilmour, who came off towards the end of a the first half with a knee injury.

Gilmour walked off with the Scotland medical staff after falling to the turf holding the outside of his knee. The Napoli midfielder is a key member of the squad and Clarke will hope he is fit for Scotland’s opening Group C match against Haiti in a fortnight’s time.

Curacao took a 17th-minute lead through Tatith Chong and were posing problems for Scotland until Jurgen Locadia was sent off on 41 minutes for catching Aaron Hickey in the face. Curtis then levelled before the break.

Scotland kicked on in the second half and Shankland, fresh from his move to Rangers earlier in the week, scored twice within five minutes. Christie’s spot-kick added gloss to the result.

Scotland now head to a pre-tournament training camp in Florida before facing Bolivia in New Jersey next Saturday, their final friendly before the World Cup.

Scotland are in Group C of the competition and face Haiti, Morocco and Brazil.