Injured Norwich City midfielder Kenny McLean put the Canaries' survival bid before chasing his own Scotland World Cup dream.

McLean is out of a Hampden play-off tie against Ukraine on Wednesday with the broken toe issue that cut short his domestic season.

The 30-year-old, who also missed the delayed Euros last summer due to a knee injury, broke a toe in the 3-2 Premier League defeat at Manchester United on April 16.

McLean played with pain killing injections the following week in the 3-0 home loss to Newcastle, but had to pull out in the warm up at Aston Villa on the weekend that sealed City's fate.

"I was in agony. There was too much swelling in my toe for the painkiller to have an effect," he said. "I didn't play, we went down and that was it. Unfortunately, I'd made the injury worse. If I'd stopped at the time then I'd probably have been fit for the Scotland games.

"But while we still had a chance of survival at Norwich, I wanted to try to help the team. It has killed me for these matches because I'm now looking at getting back on the grass in the second week in June.

"With the Scotland games coming up, that's a kick in the nuts.

"I broke the toe against Man United over a month ago. It was a tackle and I was in pain but I didn't realise what I'd done.

"I didn't want to be going off with a sore toe. But I couldn't run or push off so eventually I had to leave the field with 15 minutes to go.

"That night and the next day, my whole foot was black and blue. I had an X-ray and there was a break in my second toe on my left foot. But although things were looking bleak at Norwich, we still had a slim chance of staying up.

"So we injected it before games. I wasn't training but I was getting through matches.

"That was making it worse and the pain on a Sunday was brutal. Because we had a chance of staying in the league I wanted to play.

"But before the Aston Villa game - when we ended up being relegated - I did the warm-up and the injection wasn't working."

McLean's pending marriage this summer will soften the blow of another watching brief for Scotland.

"I've been really unlucky with Scotland, picking up injuries at bad times. Last summer I missed the biggest games the country have had in so many years," he said, speaking to the Sunday Mail.

"And this year it's the same, I'm missing the games that could get us to the World Cup.

"It's not ideal and my timing is just terrible. Last year I cancelled my wedding because it was during the Euros.

"This year I've had the wedding on hold for months. Because of this injury I can now crack on with it.

"Of course, I'm saying to myself: 'How can this happen to me again at this time?'

"I'm missing the biggest Scotland games I might ever have been involved in. So obviously it's disappointing.

"But there's nothing I can do about it. That's why you need to get your head around it - you're powerless to change anything."