SCOTLAND manager Craig Levein has denied that Steven Fletcher remains in international exile because of a battle of wills between the pair of them.

The £6.5 million Wolves man plays no part of the Scotland scene despite scoring five times in only nine Barclays Premier League appearances this season. He netted twice as Wolves beat Sunderland last weekend and is by far the most prolific Scot in England's top flight.

Fletcher made himself unavailable for Scotland by sending a text message to SFA official Frank Reilly saying he did not want to be involved against Northern Ireland in the Carling Nations Cup in February.

He had previously been unhappy about Levein not playing him in last year's Euro 2012 double-header against the Czech Republic and Spain. The 24-year-old last played for Scotland in Sweden 16 months ago, earning his eighth cap.

Since then supporters have been exasperated by the apparent stubbornness of both player and manager over the matter, and some blame Levein for not doing more to encourage the Wolves man.

Levein, though, said he had no personal issues with Fletcher and hoped he would continue to score regularly for Wolves. But to him the matter was straightforward: Scotland could not select a player who did not want to be picked.

Earlier this week Levein's first choice striker, Kenny Miller, said of Fletcher: "Maybe it's up to him to make the first move. Steven made his stance."

Levein, however, denied the issue had become a battle of wills between him and Fletcher. "That's not how I see it. Until I hear from Steven Fletcher that he wants to play for Scotland, nothing changes.

"My last communication from him was that he doesn't. It's fairly straightforward. He doesn't need to make it a public announcement. All he needs to do is send a text or make a phone call and then he will be treated the same way as everyone else.

"This keeps getting thrown up. Texting or making a phone call is what would get him back in and he hasn't done that. So I can only assume that he doesn't want to play. That's the only logic that I can apply to it.

"If he scores a goal this week or the week after – and I hope he does, because I really like Mick [McCarthy, the Wolves manager] and I hope they stay up – or if he goes on to score 20 goals this season it's still not an issue for as long as he doesn't want to play."

Meanwhile, Levein insists that if Scotland looked like qualifying for the 2014 World Cup he would turn down any potential job offers from the Barclays Premier League in order to lead his team to the finals in Brazil.

"Put it this way, someone is only going to come in for me if we're doing exceptionally well. If we do exceptionally well and we qualify then I won't leave. If we qualify I'll go to the World Cup, no matter what happens," he said.