SCOT Gemmill is bracing himself for Billy Gilmour being handed a Scotland call-up for the Euro 2020 play-offs - despite naming him in his under-21 squad for the European Championship qualifiers against Croatia and Greece yesterday.

Former Rangers kid Gilmour has been the talk or British football this month after starting for Chelsea in matches against Liverpool and Everton and picking up Man of the Match awards in both of them.

The 18-year-old’s stand-out performances for Frank Lampard’s team have led to calls for him to be promoted to the full national squad by Steve Clarke ahead of the play-off semi-final match against Israel at Hampden on Thursday, March 26.

Gemmill is understandably keen to have the youngster involved against Croatia at Tynecastle on Friday, March 27, and then Greece in Crete the following Tuesday, but admitted he could still be involved with Clarke’s side.

“You have to take the whole picture into consideration but, at the end of the day, it will be Steve who makes that decision,” he said. “Somebody could get injured and that could create an opportunity for Billy.

“Steve has got a job to do and it’s a big job with a massive responsibility. He knows exactly what he wants to do. He’s preparing for these games and I know that’s happening on a daily basis and it’s forever changing in terms of players’ availability through injury and illness.

“There’s so much that goes in to the preparation right up to not only the day of the squad announcement, but literally to the day of the game. It’s changing all the time. The manager is doing that and has to make decisions on a daily basis.”

Gemmill added: “We have to be sensible and the fact that the manager (Clarke) spoke to me about it – we speak about all the players – plus him doing well fantastically well at the highest level places him in that category.

“There will be people saying: ‘Hold on, he’s only played a couple of games, let’s see what happens’. But he’s in the under-21 squad and playing for his club. It’s a measure of his performances in the context of where he’s playing and who he’s doing it against and with (that he is being linked with a Scotland call-up).”