Scotland star unfazed by Brazil icon he shackled before as Scott McTominay 'spat' addressed

He has played every minute so far, will almost certainly start against Brazil on Wednesday and is quietly clocking up the caps. Friday’s 1-0 defeat against Morocco was his 40th Scotland appearance. Out of sight and perhaps a little out of mind since joining Saudi Arabia’s Al-Ettifaq, he has now manoeuvred himself back into the position of first-choice Scotland centre half.

He is one of six or seven certain starters against Brazil having only been named in one starting XI in qualifying. He seems to prefer such rarefied levels and started all three games at Euro 2024. It’s evident that manager Steve Clarke trusts the player against the very best.

“I really enjoy playing at this level, I think it suits my game,” he said. He might well be right. Nearly five years ago, having joined Brugges from KV Oostende he seemed to come of age in a Champions League clash against Paris Saint-Germain. Up against Neymar, Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi, he earned the man of the match award in a 1-1 draw.

If he can handle that, the thinking goes, then he can handle next midweek’s task against Brazil. After all, he will only be up against Neymar this time, although there are plenty of others who require watching. Since that night in Brussels when he stood strong against "MNM", he has faced Neymar on a couple of occasions in Saudi Arabia.

The Brazilian endured an injury hit spell in the Middle East before returning to his first club, Santos. At 34 he is now considered a diminished force. Although Hendry won’t be fooled by such talk, the laid-back defender isn’t trembling at the prospect. “I’m comfortable going up against Neymar,” he said. “I’ll look forward to it. It should be a really good battle if he plays.

“He got injured in Saudi, he did his ACL which was unfortunate. I’d have liked to play against him more. But I played against him twice in the Champions League (for Brugge) when he was at PSG - that was a good test. Their front three at that time was Messi, Mbappe and Neymar - so that’s not a bad front three.”

Few have Hendry’s expertise when it comes to judging world-class strikers. He puts Mbappe right at the top. “All strikers have different attributes,” he said. “But off the top of my head, Mbappe, you’ve seen in this tournament how good he is. At this moment in time, he’s probably one of the best players in the world if not the best.

“Then Benzema from a striker’s point of view, he’s just a killer. And then Cristiano Ronaldo, obviously he speaks for himself. I’ve been lucky to come up against these types of players a number of times. That gives you confidence when you play against them and do well. It’s great experience for me. You have to go into the game with no fear. It’s important to have these challenges before because you gain confidence. You want to be playing against the world’s best players. I look forward to it.”

His recent battles against Neymar have been enjoyably demanding. “It was a great experience, I learnt a lot from those moments against top calibre players. I look forward to it and we’ll see if he plays in the game.”

Manager Carlo Ancelotti has all but confirmed that Neymar will feature in a Brazil shirt for the first time since October 2023. The forward is bidding to score in a fourth World Cup. Scotland are aiming for their own piece of history – beating Brazil for the first time in 11 attempts.

“We can use the history as fuel, for sure,” said Hendry. “Brazil’s history speaks for itself. Scotland is a nation with players of not such a high calibre as them.

“As a nation, they’ll expect to win this game. But with the squad we’ve got and the performances we’ve shown so far, there’s confidence within the group that we can get a result. That’s going to be the main focus, to try and win it. That’s the aim. Hopefully we can put on a good performance, the nation can get behind us and we can create history.”

Scotland and Brazil have a rich history of playing each other at World Cups, but Hendry was only three when the teams last met at the tournament, in 1998.

“My first memory of Brazil is the Brazilian Ronaldo,” he said. “Everyone looked up to him and maybe got the haircut because it’s iconic, isn’t it? Roberto Carlos used to score those free-kicks. So when you think of World Cups, Brazil always comes into the conversation. So to now potentially play against them is what dreams are made of.”

Hendry dispels worries there might be troubles in the camp after footage of Scott McTominay appearing to remonstrate with the defender at a water break in the second half of Friday’s defeat to Morocco circulated on social media.

“It maybe came across differently on camera,” he said. “It’s an emotional game we’re playing with a lot on the line.

“I don’t think Scott was letting rip as such. He was just trying to communicate (something). In those moments, maybe it gets the better of you. But there were no harsh words said.”

The unruffled Hendry is taking it all in his stride, which is just as well as given the enormity of the next challenge.