Scotland boss Steve Clarke says Aaron Hickey’s return will be managed after he was included in their World Cup qualifying squad.

The 22-year-old has made two appearances off the bench in Brentford’s first games of the Premier League season, having not featured since October 2023 following a run of serious hamstring injuries.

Hickey, who has been capped 14 times by his national side, was selected for an away double-header against Denmark and Belarus as Scotland’s World Cup qualifying campaign commences.

Clarke is delighted to have him back in the squad but knows that he has to be utilised carefully after being out of action for so long.

“He’s good to go,” said Clarke. “Whether he’s good to go 90 minutes over two games is a different conversation. We’ll manage him.

“He’s been a long time out injured, and it was a difficult recovery process.

“He’s a big player for us. It’s up to everybody to manage him properly. We’ll do that.”

Hickey has made 39 appearances since joining the Bees from Bologna in the summer of 2022, but he was out of action for 659 days before coming on as a substitute in the 88th minute during Brentford’s 3-1 away defeat to Nottingham Forest.

Steve Clarke has named his first squad of our World Cup Qualifying campaign.

The campaign starts away to Denmark and Belarus, before matches at Hampden Park in October and November: https://t.co/BRhAhPsOmw pic.twitter.com/gWB0KF51m9

— Scotland National Team (@ScotlandNT) August 25, 2025

Ryan Christie, Ben Gannon-Doak and Lyndon Dykes also make their return to international duty following long injury lay-offs.

Lennon Miller, who has just recently joined Udinese, and Hibernian’s Kieron Bowie featured for the side in the summer friendlies, and both retain their place in the squad for the autumn.

Clarke said: “I opened the squad up a little bit in the summer with some more younger ones just to give them a taste.

“From the summer camp, only Kieron and Lennon have stayed in and around the scene. The rest of the boys have caught my eye.”

Scotland face Denmark first on 5 September, followed up by a clash with Belarus three days later.