Grant Hanley is hoping to become only the fourth Hibs player to represent Scotland in the World Cup finals when Steve Clarke’s men travel to the USA this summer.
Scotland face Haiti on Saturday 13 June in Boston and will then take on Morocco on Friday 19 June at the same venue before finishing against five-time winners Brazil in either Miami on Wednesday 24 June.
few eyebrows were raised when Hanley joined Hibs in the summer as he had missed much of 2023 after rupturing his Achilles and made a combined 14 starts for Norwich and Birmingham over the course of the past two seasons.
But after starting his Easter Road career on the bench, he quickly became a first choice at the heart of the Hibs defence with performances that caught the eye of Scotland boss Clarke.
The 33-year-old started the opening goalless draw in Copenhagen and the 3-1 win over the Greeks at Hampden but was rested for the subsequent victories over group minnows Belarus.
He played the final two matches, against Greece in Athens and that memorable night at Hampden against the Danes.
Hanley, who made his Scotland debut in 2011, insists he will not take anything for granted, with a possible World Cup place on the horizon.
But right now, he’s focused on keeping his place at Hibs.
He said: “For probably everybody that’s in that squad, that’ll be on their mind all season,.
“And don’t get me wrong, the next camp’s not until March, there’s a lot of football to be played between now and then so, obviously club football will be the most important thing now ,but everybody knows what’s coming.
“As much as you try and not think about it and not put too much pressure on it, you know what the goal is next summer.
“I’m sure there’ll be loads of players that will fancy their chances of being involved in that squad so, yeah, that’ll be interesting.
“If you’re not playing at club level and you’re not performing well at club level, then you’re not going to have a chance of getting into the international team.
“ There’s too many good players. The work to be in that World Cup squad starts now.”
Hanley could also be joined in the squad by team mates Kieron Bowie and Josh Mulligan, both of whom have recently been on the fringes and are in fine form for Hibs.
The last Hibs player to feature was John Blackley who played in Scotland’s 2-0 victory over Zaire in 1974.
He was then dropped for the remaining two games, a 0-0 draw against Brazil and a 1-1 draw with Yugoslavia which meant that Willie Ormond’s side returned home undefeated.
Blackley’s team mate Erich Schaedler was also in the squad but did not featured in any of the games.
Ormond was actually the first Hibs player to feature in a World Cup when he played in both of Scotland games in the 1954 tournament in Switzerland, a single goal defeat to Austria and a 7-0 defeat to Uruguay.
Team mate Bobby Johnstone also travelled but returned home with an injury before the tournament got underway. Another team mate Bobby Combe was in the original squad of 22 but only 13 players travelled.
Four years later another member of the Hibs Famous Five, Eddie Turnbull , played in all three matches.
Scotland took their first points at the tournament which was held in Sweden with a 1-1 draw against Yugoslavia ,a 3-2 defeat to Paraguay fwith the South Americans always in front and in the final game, another defeat, this time to France by the odd goal in three.
In 1986 Hibs keeper Alan Rough was included in Alex Ferguson’s squad for the World Cup in Mexico along with two other keepers who would also grace Easter Road, Andy Goran, then at Oldham Athletic and Jim Leighton who was at Aberdeen. Roughie did not play any games.
In 1990, Scotland qualified for the tournament which was held in Italy. Hibs goalkeeper Andy Goram travelled with the squad but did not feature .
Although listed as a Hibs player, John Collins was in the process of moving to Celtic. Like Goram he did not play in any of the games.
No Hibs players featured in the 1998 Scotland squad under Craig Brown although the squad contained four former Hibs players, Jim Leighton, John Collins, Darren Jackson and Gordon Durie.
