The Motherwell man, who competed at the last Euros for Scotland, has his say on right-back dilemma facing Steve Clarke

Scotland international Stephen O’Donnell reckons Anthony Ralston handling the weight of big games at Celtic gives him the edge over Ross McCrorie to start in the pressure cooker of next week’s Euro 2024 opener against Germany.

The Motherwell defender, who played at Euro 2020 and helped Scotland earn a 0-0 draw over England at Wembley, is tipping the Celtic ace to get the nod from Scotland boss Steve Clarke when the Scots open the tournament in front of a huge partisan crowd at the 75,000-seater Allianz Arena on June 14.

O’Donnell knows Clarke faces a dilemma over who to start at right-back with injuries to Nathan Patterson and Aaron Hickey ruling them out of the tournament.

That likely leaves a straight shoot-out between eight-times capped Ralston and Bristol City defender McCrorie, who won his first cap in the 2-0 friendly win over Gibraltar in Faro on Monday.

Tonight’s friendly at Hampden could give an indication on who will be at the forefront of Clarke’s thoughts.

And right-back O’Donnell is backing fellow Lanarkshire man Ralston.

He told Lanarkshire Live Sport : “I’d tip Tony to play. He has played a number of times for Scotland and always performed well.

“He has played in so many big games and is used to the pressure at Celtic so all these things are positives for him to get that slot. That was Ross’ first game earlier in the week, while Tony has been in the setup now for a while and has a bit more experience.

“He maybe hasn’t been involved as much for Celtic towards the end of the season, but he was training right up to the cup final so he would have been working a bit longer than Ross in the Championship, which finished a bit earlier.

“There’s a whole host of reasons and If Ross plays, there is absolutely no harm because Ross has had a very good season as well.

“I think Tony has done exceptionally well and I am looking forward to seeing how he performs.

“The Euros is something special and it will be great for him to be involved in it and hopefully all the boys perform well.”