Kenny McLean’s World Cup dream is hanging by a thread, with Scotland’s Hampden qualifier against Moldova on Saturday a ‘must-win’ for the Norwich City midfielder.

McLean, club captain Grant Hanley and on-loan Chelsea youngster Billy Gilmour all started the Scots’ midweek 2-0 defeat in Denmark.

That left Steve Clarke’s squad seven points behind the Danes in Group F, with only the group winners guaranteed a place at next year’s finals in Qatar.

McLean suffered the heartbreak of missing the delayed Euros this summer, following a knee injury in City’s Championship finale at Barnsley.

The 29-year-old accepts there is no margin for error now, with a trip to Austria next week rounding up the international period, before resuming the Canaries’ Premier League quest at Arsenal.

“Moldova is a must-win game,” he said, quoted in the Daily Record. “We need to go and get something, but we need to recover and put things right (on Saturday).

“It was a tough match, of course, and we knew it was going to be but we made it a bit too easy for them in the first half.

"We allowed (Denmark) to play, their confidence grew, the fans got on their side and we conceded two goals.

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"It was going to be tough conceding them so close together. We really shot ourselves in the foot with the second one, especially, and it was a real uphill task from there.

"Second half we came out and showed a bit more, but the first half killed us. In the middle of the park we didn't lay a glove on them.

"We had to show a bit of character in the second half to create chances, and we did at times.

"Ryan (Christie) had one, but it wasn't to be. After the first half, we didn't really deserve much from the game.”