Stephen McManus has admitted he was disappointed with Lee McCulloch over his international retirement.
Scotland skipper not happy with Rangers man
Scotland captain Stephen McManus has admitted he was disappointed with Lee McCulloch over the timing of his retirement from international football.
McCulloch revealed on Monday that he no longer wanted to be considered for Scotland so that he could concentrate on playing for Rangers.
The announcement came just two days after Scotland's 1-0 defeat to Macedonia and 48 hours before the next World Cup qualifier against Iceland.
McManus does not feel that McCulloch's decision has helped the rest of the squad as they prepare for Wednesday's match in Reykjavik.
"The timing was the most disappointing thing because if we had won on Saturday would we have heard a thing about it? Of course we wouldn't," the Celtic defender said in the
Daily Record.
"But when everybody in the country is negative these kind of stories appear willy nilly. If we'd won it would have been done and dusted, nothing would have been said."
Reasons
McManus understands that McCulloch has the right to call time on his international career, but believes the situation could have been handled differently.
He said: "There must be reasons for Lee's decision. All the boys know him well. He's a terrific lad to have about the squad and a very good player.
"Whatever has happened is between the manager and him but that's certainly not an avenue I would go down myself.
"If you are going to make a decision like that then, personally, I would speak to the manager or the people involved.
"It might have been blown out of proportion - I have no idea and to be perfectly honest I'm not interested.
"But if it was me maybe I would have done things a wee bit differently."
