MATT RITCHIE is desperate to help get Scotland’s World Cup qualifying campaign back on track tomorrow, before returning to a ‘refreshed’ Newcastle United squad ahead of the final eight games of the season.

Ritchie was left out of Gordan Strachan’s squad for Wednesday’s 1-1 draw with Canada, a game that has been derided north of the border as one of the worst friendly performances in Scotland’s history.

With his side hosting Slovenia in a must-win qualifying game tomorrow night, Strachan opted to rest a number of his most important players on Wednesday, and Ritchie is expected to return to the starting line-up as the Scots look to improve a dreadful position that currently sees them sitting in fifth position in the group they share with England.

The Magpies winger might have been born and raised in the Hampshire town of Gosport, but he is a proud Scot thanks to his father’s roots, and is determined to do all he can to ensure Scotland leave Hampden Park tomorrow with a realistic hope of qualifying for next summer’s finals in Russia.

“I hope I’ll have a role to play,” said Ritchie, who made his international debut in 2015. “We’ve obviously got a lot of competition for places, and there are a lot of good players in the squad. But I’ll be there doing what I always do – trying to do my best.”

Ritchie is one of four senior Newcastle players currently away on international duty, although he is the only regular starter set to represent his country in the next few days. Aleksandar Mitrovic, Chancel Mbemba and Matz Sels are also away from Tyneside, but are unlikely to feature in the starting line-up when the Magpies return to domestic duty against Wigan Athletic.

Grant Hanley, Ciaran Clark and Daryl Murphy have all withdrawn from their respective squads because of injury, and Benitez will be hoping the trio recover in time to face the Latics.

The majority of Newcastle’s non-international players have had a relatively light training week and will step up their preparations for the Wigan game on Monday, and having come through a hectic spell that featured testing trips to Brighton, Huddersfield and Reading, Ritchie feels the current break could have come at an ideal time for the Championship leaders.

“In a way, maybe this is coming at a good time,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of tough games recently, so it might be good to wind down a bit in training and concentrate on recovering a bit.

“It’s tough when you play Saturday-Tuesday all the time to get yourself back to peak fitness and condition. Making sure you’re ready to go again is tough, and you’re always going into games with little knocks or strains.

“It’s two weeks between league games, and that might help. There’s obviously a few of us that are away for internationals, but we’ll still be trying to look after our bodies and get back to peak condition. Then we’ll go again for the run in.”