Barry Ferguson adds to Scotland woes

Scotland's hopes of riding out an injury crisis ahead of Wednesday night's World Cup qualifier in Belarus were in the balance after it was revealed captain Barry Ferguson is the latest potential casualty.

The Rangers midfielder is doubtful for a game the Scots know they must win to boost their play-off chances, having limped out of training on Tuesday with a groin injury.

If he is sidelined, he will be the 11th man to be ruled out in the space of two weeks and manager Walter Smith has a number of other injury worries.

Ferguson was hurt during the final training session for the qualifier in Minsk's Dinamo Stadium.

His fitness will be assessed later on Wednesday but Smith is keen to finalise his team as early as possible.

The player is understood to be willing to play through the pain barrier, just as Manchester United midfielder Darren Fletcher had vowed to do before last week's 2-0 win over Moldova when he had been suffering from a hamstring problem.

Fletcher has now been passed fit again, but Smith had been counting on him to form a central midfield partnership with Ferguson.

Ferguson had been hurt despite Smith introducing a "no tackling" rule as a precaution in the final training session.

He said: "We had a couple injured in training the other day and we didn't want any more.

"I think we've been unlucky in losing Jackie McNamara and Neil McCann. That can happen and it's a bit of bad luck given the amount of training sessions that can happen to you in."

Smith's worries over three other players have eased, however, as striker Kenny Miller and defenders Graham Alexander and Steven Pressley are all set to play.

Alexander had been struggling with a toe problem, Miller had a thigh strain and Pressley had been nursing a knee knock.

Smith said: "All three have come through, although Alexander will require an injection in his toe to play.".

Victory would propel Scotland above their hosts and into fourth place, but more significantly it would cut the gap between themselves and play-off rivals Slovenia and Norway to just one point.

The Scots won 1-0 on their last visit to Minsk, courtesy of a Gary McAllister penalty in 1997, and went on to reach the World Cup finals the following year.

Bloody hell there must be something wrong with our training schedule to egt thismuch injuries every time.

Hes a big loss

He is a leader, and the heart of Scotlands team. This is a massive loss for the Scotts.