Socceroos miss out: Scotland praises 'excellent' Dykes debut

Dykes officially ruled himself out of any possible Australian overtures this morning when he played - and starred - in Scotland's 1-1 draw with Israel in the UEFA Nation's League.

Had Dykes not played, it could have been a fortuitous moment for Australia, with Scotland's next opponents Czech Republic ruling themselves out of the tournament due to COVID risks.

But it wasn't to be, as Dykes played most of the game.

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Scotland played a back three but still managed to isolate the Aussie-born striker for most of the match, but his strength and resilience still left coach and pundits praising him as a future Scottish mainstay.

"I thought he was excellent," Scotland boss Steve Clarke said.

"Good hold-up play, strong boy. Gives us a good option. We need to look, especially in the second half of the game, we need to look at getting more support for Lyndon a little bit earlier, but that's something that we can work on, and that we'll improve."

Dykes grew up on the Gold Coast playing rugby league and recently revealed he only began taking football seriously at 20, but after moving to Scotland has become one of the nation's greatest football prospects.

He now plays for QPR in the English Championship.