SCOTLAND’S sojurns to both South and Central America over the years have hardly been resounding successes.

It is now nearly four decades since Ally MacLeod headed off to the World Cup in Argentina boldly proclaiming his boys would return victorious. The scar to the national psyche left by that sorry episode, though, has still not properly healed.

The country fared little better in Mexico eight years later despite having Sir Alex Ferguson, who had taken over on a temporary basis following the tragic death of Jock Stein after a qualifying draw with Wales in Cardiff, in charge. The players involved in the final group game against a brutal Uruguay side still have the scars on their legs to this day.

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Alex McLeish, the current manager, has, in stark contrast to MacLeod, been at pains to point out just how difficult the friendly games against Peru in Lima on Tuesday week and then Mexico in Mexico City the following Saturday will be for his side since he was appointed back in February.

Nevertheless, this end-of-season tour has the capacity to be every bit as painful for Scotland as some of their previous excursions across the Atlantic and simply avoiding heavy, humiliating and demoralising defeats ahead of the start of the inaugural UEFA Nations League later this year will be an accomplishment of sorts.

Their hosts, ranked 23 and 19 places above them in the FIFA World Rankings respectively, will be at full strength, playing in their final warm-up matches for the Russia 2018 finals on home soil and cheered on by partisan capacity crowds in both the National and Azteca Stadiums.

Throw in the heat, humidity, pollution and high altitude - Mexico City is 7,400 feet above sea level and McLeish and his players will, after taking advice from SFA high performance director Graeme Jones, only arrive the day before in order to cope with that – and it promises to be no picnic.

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Scotland would have a difficult task getting a result in the meetings with Ricardo Gareca’s men and Juan Carlos Osorio’s charges in the coming fortnight if they had a full complement of players. But they will be taking only a handful of individuals who will hope to be in the starting line-up when they face Albania at Hampden in September.

Brendan Rodgers has requested that his regular starters, James Forrest, Craig Gordon, Callum McGregor, Kieran Tierney, are rested at the end of a long and draining campaign so they are fresh for their opening Champions League qualifiers in mid-July and his wishes have been respected.

Leigh Griffiths, meanwhile, is unavailable for selection as he will undergo surgery following the William Hill Scottish Cup final today. Celtic, then, will only be represented by Stuart Armstrong, Ryan Christie, Jack Hendry and Lewis Morgan.

The only player to be involved in the Premier League in the 2017/18 campaign will be Matt Phillips of West Brom after Matt Ritchie of Newcastle United and Ryan Fraser of Bournemouth withdrew after McLeish announced his 24-man squad on Monday. Barry Douglas, the left back who helped Wolves win the Championship down south, has also cried off.

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Chris Cadden of Motherwell and Stephen O’Donnell of Kilmarnock, who have both been called up by their country will, along with every member of the travelling party, doubtless love every minute of the trip and benefit from it both as players and people in future.

Armstrong, who was nothing short of a revelation for Scotland towards the end of their ultimately ill-fated Russia 2018 qualifying campaign after winning his first cap last year, will receive an invaluable insight into the levels required to be involved in the finals of major tournaments and will also get much-needed game time.

Hendry, Oliver McBurnie of Swansea City, John McGinn of Hibernian, Scott McKenna of Aberdeen, Scott McTominay of Manchester United, Jamie Murphy of Rangers, Callum Paterson of Cardiff City, and Johnny Russell of Sporting Kansas City have all suggested they can do a job for the national team in their appearances in the past. These games will only serve to increase their experience at international level.

McLeish, who inherited these matches when he succeeded his former Aberdeen and Scotland team mate Gordon Strachan as manager, has been careful to focus on the positives.

He will undoubtedly learn a great deal from living and working with his group for the best part of two weeks. But slumping to hefty losses will, regardless of the extenuating circumstances, be damaging to how he is perceived. And simply averting another South or Central American trauma is the most he can reasonably hope for.