Nicol, the self-styled "guru of personal reinvention", comes from Brown's adopted county, Ayrshire, but there will be no call for him to do his patriotic duty.Although his predecessor, Andy Roxburgh, used a psychologist called Jack Black, Brown is of the opinion that it is the manager's job to provide motivation for those players who need it. Those countries don't have players missing constantly the way we do. The only Czech who has been out lately is Pavel Nedved, and he played against Lithuania."Reports that Kevin Keegan had used a Scottish sports psychologist, Watt Nicol, to put England's players in the right frame of mind ahead of their win over Poland were received with indifference bordering on scepticism in the Scotland camp. "The way we play our football in the English and Scottish Premiership is very physical, and fiercely competitive compared with the more technical game in somewhere like France. Gould was expected to understudy Neil Sullivan, but Brown will have to re-examine his options unless he returns today.While Brown is aware of Scotland's reputation for having some players with more call-offs than caps, he views it as a British rather than a Scottish problem. Reflecting on his trip to Teplice on Saturday to watch the Czechs' 2-0 defeat of Lithuania, he claimed he could have named their starting XI before he arrived, as well as those of most teams involved in Championship qualifiers that day."I might have struggled to predict the British sides, though," said Brown.

I couldn't consider letting him start otherwise." Another of the Anglo-Scots, the Celtic goalkeeper Jonathan Gould, has been given compassionate leave from their coastal headquarters at Troon after complications with his wife's pregnancy. The Scotland manager added: "Matt will have to prove himself 100 per cent fit for me to pick him. EVEN AFTER a weekend in which the most energetic squad activity was kicking their heels following the postponement of Bosnia's visit, Scotland's preparations for tomorrow's European Championship Group Nine summit meeting with the Czech Republic in Glasgow have been undermined by an injury scare. Matt Elliott, the London-born Leicester defender who was in line to replace long-term casualty Colin Hendry at Celtic Park, reported a back strain which Craig Brown described as a "major worry". South Korea kept coming at us for the full 90 minutes - I'll have to sit down and analyse what went wrong."Kim Do-hoon's last-minute goal for South Korea condemned Brazil to their first defeat under Luxemburgo, whose team take on Japan tomorrow in Tokyo.. They are killing people in front of everyone's eyes."Despite the disruption the conflict is causing to the European Championship fixture schedule, Uefa has no plans to exclude ."We are not thinking of playing without any of the [Balkan] countries," Guido Tognoni, a Uefa spokesman, said yesterday. "But we all agree that, for the moment, football has to step back."South KoreaBRAZIL'S NATIONAL squad arrived in Japan yesterday still stunned by Sunday's shock 1-0 defeat to South Korea.Brazil's coach, Wanderley Luxemburgo, who included six newcomers for the trip to Asia in his build-up to the Copa America in June and next year's Sydney Olympics, said: "They're still not used to each other so they didn't play as a unit.

I don't know how I'll get there but I'll manage."The Juventus defender Zoran Mirkovic returned to Italy from Belgrade on Saturday after the postponement of 's Euro 2000 qualifier against Croatia and said: "I saw my town burning last night It is shameful for the whole of Europe. "I wanted to play to show that the Yugoslavs are not assassins," he said "I'm not in agreement with those that aren't playing. That way, we're not proving anything."In France, the Metz striker Vladan Lukic is heading for home "What they're doing to my country is a scandal So I'm off," he said "It's my duty to leave because my country is under attack. Fifteen Yugoslav players were faced with making the choice of whether to play or not. Four chose to withdraw their labour, four were either dropped or made substitute while the other seven men played - although some wore black armbands.The former Kilmarnock goalkeeper Dragoje Lekovic refused to play for his Spanish club, Malaga, but his compatriot Dejan Markovic turned out for Osasuna. The international striker said: "Footballers are not going to play while our families cannot come out of their cellars."While Spain's First Division footballers had the weekend off, there was a full Second Division programme. This is the clear standpoint which will be conveyed to players, clubs and to the Yugoslav national association itself." The Yugoslav FA had urged Serb expatriates not to play for clubs based in Nato member countries.The former Aston Villa striker Savo Milosevic, now with Real Zaragoza, was part of a demonstration by Yugoslav players based in Spain outside the American embassy in Madrid.