Scottish Premiership star added to Scotland pre-World Cup training squad

The national team head coach named his 26-man squad for the finals on Tuesday which included eight players currently plying their trade in the Scottish top flight.

Craig Gordon, Liam Kelly, Grant Hanley, John Souttar, Anthony Ralston, Kieran Tierney, Lawrence Shankland and Findlay Curtis will all fly the flag for the SPFL at the tournament.

They have been joined by a ninth domestic-based player after uncapped Dundee centre-back Luke Graham was called up to the training squad ahead of the friendly against Curacao at Hampden in 10 days time.

The May 30 fixture will act as a send-off for the Scotland squad before they travel to the USA for a pre-tournament camp at Inter Miami's training base in Fort Lauderdale.

Graham, 22, has enjoyed an excellent breakthrough season for the Dens Park side, establishing himself as one of the most sought-after defensive talents in Scotland. His performances have triggered a flurry of transfer interest with Dundee turning down a £1.5million bid from Portsmouth in January and Rangers, Sheffield United and Norwich City also showing a keen interest ahead of the summer.

He was nominated for the PFA Scotland Young Player of the Year but was pipped to the award by Rangers winger Mikey Moore. Graham has also earned three caps for Scotland Under-21s.

Dundee congratulated the defender for his first senior call-up in a social media post on X.

Speaking to The Courier about the transfer links, Graham said: “It’s been non-stop really since January. Questions every week about where I’m going to be playing next season. You can sometimes get a bit fed up with it but it’s obviously going to happen when there is a little bit of talk going on.

“It’s just been a good season overall. That’s all I’ve been focusing on the whole time. Just try to get Dundee to finish as high as possible. I’ve really not got any idea (what the future holds).

“The first thing on my mind is just try and enjoy my summer. Just get the football out of my head for as long as possible really.

“I want to wind down from everything and then we’ll need to wait and see what happens really. I’ve loved every minute of it, and if not, I’ll be ready to go again next season for Dundee.”

Dundee manager Steven Pressley admitted he will struggle to keep hold of Graham this summer due to the interest with the defender set to enter the final year of his contract.

“Listen, we don’t know how things will go over the summer,” Pressley said. “But what we do know is there is a lot of interest. A lot of interest. We have taken a lot of calls. This might have been the last time Dundee supporters see him in our shirt.

"I think his performances and how he has gone about things has been an example to everybody. He has handled the pressure that comes with speculation.”