The Scotland boss named his 23-man squad this morning for next Wednesday's friendly against Sweden in Stockholm then revealed he had been asked to leave some players out due to club commitments.

Reports claimed Cardiff City manager Dave Jones made a personal phone call to Levein to request that his keeper, David Marshall, be left out to play in a Carling Cup tie against Burton on the same night.

Middlesbrough's boss Gordon Strachan, whose side take on Chesterfield in the same competition just 24 hours before the Scotland game, will also be hampered after the Scotland manager called up Kevin Thomson, Barry Robson, Kris Boyd and Stephen McManus.

Levein is sympathetic to the plight of his managerial colleagues but is adamant that while he is in charge of Scotland, country has to come before club.

"I have had requests for players to be allowed to be allowed to call off because there are games on the Tuesday night," he said.

"But the international date has been in the calendar for a long time, the Championship chose to schedule Carling Cup games for the Tuesday night.

"I am asking for the players to be available for one game prior to the start of the Euros.

"They can't not come because of club commitments.

"I have a degree of sympathy, of course, with managers who want to have their best players available for these games.

"But my allegiances lie only with Scotland and I've got to do what is right and I also have to do what I think is fair.

"I can't allow some teams to have players call off because they have a game on and not allow others.

"So in the interest of fairness to everybody and what I think is best for the national team, then all the players will be called up."

The former Hearts and Dundee United boss claimed to be "relaxed" about the fact he will weaken Strachan's side.

He said: "Gordon (Strachan) is very patriotic as well.

"They are over in Germany just now and I have tried to make contact but it hasn't been easy.

"But I am relaxed about it and I think that Gordon is as well.

"As an international manager you want to accommodate people but in this situation it is impossible for me.

"The two things are never going to align completely.

"Remember, I have been on the other side of the fence when players were away for international duty. You accept it.

"I am trying my best to help people where I can but my main priority, and I keep coming back to it, is to have the best players available for Scotland.

"There might be cases where you speak to the managers and there are injuries but these things happen.

"I am sure there will be injuries before the Sweden game and the game beyond that."

After only one friendly game against the Czech Republic in March, Levein now has just the Sweden match as a final dress rehearsal before the Euro 2012 qualifying double-header against Lithuania and Liechtenstein in September.

And the Scotland boss is determined to give himself the best chance of a positive start to the campaign.

"One of the reasons that I didn't call on the players during the summer was to let them have a good rest and not to put too much of a load on them," he said.

"We only have a five-team group which means four games in September and October.

"I don't think the demands that the SFA are putting on the clubs is enormous and I need as much co-operation as I can get.

"Every international manager is hopeful that when you get to kick-off time that you have your best players available, guys you have picked.

"It's in the lap of the gods sometimes. There are some games to be played before the Sweden match so I might get some injuries."

Levein confirmed that his scout Mike Oliver had approached Bolton's 33-year-old captain Kevin Davies to see if he was eligible to play for Scotland.

The former Scotland defender said: "Mike spoke to him - he's been speaking to a lot of people - but he (Davies) didn't have any Scottish (links)".