Dundee United manager Robbie Neilson has resigned himself to losing Lawrence Shankland for a vital league match.
When the Tangerines host Queen of the South at Tannadice on Saturday, November 16, the free-scoring frontman is likely to be with Scotland in Cyprus that same day for the national team’s penultimate Euro 2020 qualifier.
That will leave a huge gap in Neilson’s team for a crucial Championship clash but, in the grand scheme of things, he feels it will be a price worth paying to have a United player living the dream in the dark blue of his country.
Neilson said: “We will miss him for one of the games next month and that’s the down side of all this.
“It is, though, great for the club overall.
“The kids here have somebody they can look up to now and it’s been a long time since there has been a guy here at United playing at that level for Scotland.
“It is about the bigger picture for us.
“We will miss him but it’s not just about one player for us.”
Shankland will be back in tangerine this weekend when United travel down to Dumfries to face the Doonhamers determined to shake off any hangover from the loss to Alloa last time out.
It will be the meeting of two of Scottish football’s finest scorers, with Shankland at one end of the pitch and Queens’ Stephen Dobbie at the other.
While the United player has found it hard to miss so far this season, Dobbie’s goals have dried up and he has yet to find the net in the Championship.
That does not make him any less dangerous, according to Neilson.
He said: “Obviously Dobbie was the main striker for them last year and by this point he had something like 14 or 15 goals.
“He has not been quite at it but I have watched their games and he is still a real threat and is getting into good areas.
“He is still creating goals for everyone else, as we saw when he hit the post against Dundee when Queens scored from the rebound.
“We know he will be the key player we need to watch down there.”
