McCulloch: Injuries forced me to quit playing for Scotland

Reports broke on Monday that the midfielder would no longer play for
Scotland - in between the World Cup double header against Macedonia and Iceland.

The 30-year-old claims he phoned Scottish Football Association national teams
administrator Richard Simpson the previous Thursday but the news was not passed
on to Scotland manager George Burley.

Caling time: Lee McCulloch is giving up playing for Scotland

Instead, Burley awoke to reports at the start of this week that McCulloch would refuse to play under his stewardship.

'The timing was not too good when the boys were trying to get themselves ready for a game,' said McCulloch.

'I did for it before the game but a lot of people didn't know that I had spoken to the SFA before the game and let them know that decision and I was hoping it was going to be quiet in the background between me, the manager and Richard Simpson.

'It doesn't look too good. It looks as if I am trying to upset people, upset the manager the players, the nations.

'I think as we speak just now, the whole nation hate me. I just wanted to let everyone know the truth.'

McCulloch revealed he had been considering his international future for almost a year, following Scotland's European Championship qualifying defeat to Italy.

He said: 'I've thought long and hard about stepping away from international football, for a lot of reasons, footballing reasons and family reasons.

'I don't want to talk about family reasons but there are a whole lot of footballing reasons. I've thought about it since the Italy game, where it was bitter disappointment all round.'

McCulloch, who was left out of the squad for the matches in Macedonia and
Iceland because of a knee injury, added: "Another footballing reason was I started picking up niggling injuries, which have hampered me.

'I picked up my current injury in the first game of pre-season and it's getting worse.

'Rangers as a club are getting stronger and stronger and the competition is getting better, so I have to think about my club football, getting my form back and helping Rangers win the league.'

McCulloch was not asked about his relationship with Burley, who he has not played under for Scotland, mainly because of injury.

But the SFA said on Monday that the player had assured Burley his decision was
nothing personal when the pair spoke on the telephone that afternoon.