SCOTT Arfield has been given a boost in his bid to earn international recognition, with Scotland assistant boss Mark McGhee revealing he is watching the Burnley midfielder.

Arfield has spoken openly this season of his dream of representing his country on the international stage. The 26-year-old has been capped 17 times at Under-21 level and has also played once for the Scotland B team, but he appears to be edging closer to a call-up to Gordon Strachan’s senior side.

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Arfield has scored twice in 24 games for Burnley this season, and McGhee has been to watch him ‘a couple of times’.

But the former Wolves and Millwall boss admits Arfield has a tough task on his hands to displace the midfielders already capped by Strachan while in charge of the Tartan Army.

Strachan’s number two will watch Jack Grimmer play for Fulham tonight, and of him and Arfield he said: “These are boys who are getting good reviews down the road and who therefore deserve consideration.

“Now what they have to do is displace people who are already there. One of the most difficult jobs is for the likes of Scott Arfield. In the middle of the park we have Scott Brown, Charlie Mulgrew, James Morrison and James McArthur, a group in our strongest area of the team, so he has to get in ahead of them.

“And even if you play him in a wider role where he plays a lot for Burnley, you then have the likes of Graham Dorrans, who is doing well for his club.

“He has to get ahead of them, but we will do our due diligence and when Gordon starts to finalise his squad we will be considering what we have seen up until then, to know if we will bring them in or not.”

Scotland’s next matches are at the end of March, when they play Northern Ireland in a friendly, before a European Championship qualifier against Gibraltar.

Burnley’s second choice goalkeeper Matt Gilks is a regular in Strachan’s squads, while summer signing George Boyd is hoping to add to his two caps after catching the eye for the Clarets.

Asked about his international ambitions recently, Arfield said: “I’ve never hid away from the fact that I would love to play for my national side and if the chance came it would be great. It would be the proudest moment of my career, where I’ve come from it would be a tremendous achievement and something I’m striving for.”