HAVING been a first team regular at Aberdeen for no fewer than 16 years and been capped by Scotland on 77 occasions, Alex McLeish was the epitome of consistency throughout his distinguished playing career.

Yet, McLeish recalled yesterday, as he announced his 23-man national squad for the double header against Belgium and Albania at Hampden next month, how his time as a centre half for club and country was not without its difficult spells.

“I played 13 games in a row for Scotland - and then suffered an injury and found it difficult to find my form again,” he said.

That admission by one of this country’s greatest-ever defenders will doubtless be comforting for Jack Hendry, who was named in the pool for the forthcoming fixtures, given the hard time he is currently experiencing at Celtic.

Hendry has, along with several of his Parkhead team mates, been subjected to some fairly savage criticism from both supporters and media pundits following some distinctly below par performances domestically and in Europe this season.

But McLeish, who started the 23-year-old in the friendly matches against Hungary in Budapest in March and Mexico in Mexico City in June, appreciates from personal experience how a young player’s displays can fluctuate.

He is confident the former Dundee man, who only moved to Celtic in a £1.5 million transfer back in January, has the ability and self-belief to ride out this tough period and feature once again for his country.

“It happens,” he said. “As I said, it happened to me in my career as well. When you play with Celtic and Rangers you need a strong mentality. It’s hard when you make a mistake and the fans have a go at you. Especially at those clubs. The tiniest mistake at Rangers and Celtic can hurt players and make them lose their confidence.

“The irony is that he got criticised for losing a goal in Europe – but we then had a fantastic report on him from the (Partick) Thistle game. He went on a mazy run which I hear was on YouTube, but, by and large, he had a really solid game.

“Jack has played very well for us and he played well in South and North America trip. I understand he didn’t travel last week because of an injury so maybe he’s been playing with that for a few weeks.

“We know football and football fans – you make a mistake and they get on your back. That’s the nature of the game. You need to be strong and get that experience. It’s going to happen at sometime and it’s now down to how he reacts to that with performances with Celtic. But I think Jack has the bottle.”

Hendry has a fair chance of being involved against Belgium and Albania given that Scott McKenna, the Aberdeen centre half who has been involved in all four of the matches McLeish has overseen since being appointed back in February, is sidelined with a hamstring injury.

McKenna has attracted interest from Celtic, who had a £3.5 million bid rejected last week, Hull City and Swansea City and his national manager feels he could cope with a move to a higher level

“Scotty has quite a meteoric rise over the last year,” said McLeish. “He’s still a young guy. Is it too early to go? Scott is still learning his trade, but he’s learning it fast. He’s a guy I feel will get better with the more experience he gets.”

The games against Belgium and Albania will be the first that McLeish has worked with Kieran Tierney as well as his Celtic team mate Leigh Griffiths and he admitted he is looking forward to welcoming both men back into the fray.

Tierney moved to right back when Gordon Strachan was in charge of the national team, but the left back is set to play as a centre half in a three man defence, where he started against the Netherlands at Pittodrie in November, going forward.

“We have to maximise the strengths of the players,” said McLeish. “Tierney is a left-sided player and (Andy) Robertson is a left-sided player so they will play on the left side. We will find a system that suits the players’ strengths.”

John Souttar, who has been outstanding for early Ladbrokes Premiership leaders Hearts this season, has won his first call-up to the senior Scotland side and McLeish is hopeful he can transfer his club form to international football.

“John is still a young boy learning his trade and we look to him to rise again to international status,” he said. “It is a great challenge ahead for him.”

Avoiding defeat against Belgium, who finished third at Russia 2018, will be an achievement of sorts at Hampden on Friday week given how youthful this Scotland squad is.

But McLeish believes his players will learn more testing themselves against the likes of Toby Alderweireld, Kevin De Bruyne, Mousa Dembele, Marouane Fellaini, Eden Hazard, Vincent Kompany, Jan Vertonghen and Romelu Lukaku than lesser rivals.

“It is better we play a top drawer team,” he said. “We chose a friendly v Belgium rather than a couple of other options we had. It is a fantastic level and a level we all aspire to.”