A total of 624 footballers will convene on Germany for Euro 2024 over the coming days, but one Liverpool player has had his dreams of featuring in the tournament dashed in heartbreaking fashion.
When Scotland’s provisional squad was announced a fortnight ago, Ben Doak was among those included, but the 18-year-old will have to wait at least four more years to represent his country on the European stage.
The Scottish national team’s official X channel confirmed on Tuesday evening that the Reds forward has been forced out of Euro 2024 contention due to injury, with Bristol City’s Tommy Conway called up in his place.
In a poignant tweet showing class from the admins responsible, @ScotlandNT posted: “Sadly, Ben Doak has been withdrawn from the #EURO2024 squad through injury. Ben – we know we’ll see you entertaining crowds at Hampden in a Scotland shirt soon.”
Scotland squad update:
Ahead of Friday’s match against Finland, Steve Clarke has called Tommy Conway into his squad.
Sadly, Ben Doak has been withdrawn from the #EURO2024 squad through injury. Ben – we know we’ll see you entertaining crowds at Hampden in a Scotland shirt soon. pic.twitter.com/he01RGvybX
— Scotland National Team (@ScotlandNT) June 4, 2024
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Although Doak was always facing a race against time to regain fitness in time for Euro 2024, and may not have featured much anyway as he remains uncapped at senior level, it’s still gutting for him to be so close to appearing at the tournament, only to have the dream snatched away from him.
To make it even more agonising, the injury to fellow forward Lyndon Dykes appeared to increase the Liverpool youngster’s prospects of nabbing a seat on the plane to Germany, and Steve Clarke initially expected to have him available for Monday’s friendly against Gibraltar.
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Sadly, the Reds maestro will have to cheer on his Scotland colleagues from the outside looking in, but once the devastation of missing out on the finals subsides, he’ll take encouragement from his inclusion in the provisional squad, which proved that he’s very much in the manager’s thoughts.
There’ll be three more international windows before the end of 2024, and therefore a few more opportunities for Doak to be granted a senior Scottish debut in the next six months.
Here’s to a speedy recovery for the young lad – as the Scotland national team tweet said, it surely won’t be too long before we see him illuminating Hampden Park for his country.
