Celtic have been given a blessing in disguise with Anthony Ralston's Scotland snub - Sean Martin

He was in there last time, making his debut in the Dark Blues' impressive 2-0 win over Denmark - albeit that was for just seven minutes and at left wing-back. 

That call-up came off the back of selection issues while Covid scuppered a previous attempt of Scotland boss Steve Clarke's to get Ralston involved.

Since then he's played in a further 16 matches for Celtic (14 starts, 12 full 90s) and took his goals and assists tallies to five and seven respectively while generally performing well defensively too.

Essentially, very little has changed for Ralston since he seemingly got his nose in the international door. He's kept on keeping on.

That said, with Greg Taylor returning to his own spot in the Scotland squad after injury and the versatile Aaron Hickey included for the first time, you can start to see why Clarke maybe felt he couldn’t find a place for Ralston. Too many full-backs spoil the broth.

But it does feel harsh, given his impressive form this season now stretches to almost 40 matches.

While much will no doubt be made of Taylor and Hickey both getting the call, rather than one or the other, it's only logical the Ralston selection arguments should begin and end with the players who'll occupy his flank rather than the opposite one.

Stephen O’Donnell is... OK. He's a hard worker. An overachiever. He's trusted by Clarke and all the rest of it. 

Those qualities that endear him to some as an underdog character seem to antagonise just as many others. In his defence, he's never been quite as poor as is often suggested. People see what they want to see after all. And he'll always have Wembley as a response anyway.

Given O'Donnell has pretty much been first-choice for a while now - he's started 23 of his 24 caps and played the whole game in 70 per cent of those - it's difficult to make the argument it was ever really a decision between him and Ralston.

The other right-sided defender is, or probably should have been, another story though. The thing is, Nathan Patterson's inclusion was arguably even less surprising than O'Donnell's. 

Clarke went all-in on him when he chose to include him in the European Championships squad despite having more fanfare than field-time on his CV. 

That's hardly Patterson's fault, mind. And he has put in decent performances, certainly offensively, since getting fast-tracked into the A-team setup last year.

A move south, to Everton, has yet to help the 20-year-old accelerate his development however.

The Toffees find themselves in a relegation scrap, with erstwhile Celtic loanee Jonjoe Kenny and Seamus Coleman preferred to Patterson. One half against fifth-tier side Boreham Wood in the FA Cup is the sum total of his time on Merseyside so far.

“He just has to stay patient and keep working," said his manager, Frank Lampard, earlier this week. "I'll find the right time for him to come into the team.”

That wasn't Clarke's modus operandi with him and, to be fair, he has stayed perfectly in tune with his own selection logic when it comes to Patterson this time round too. You can't very well call up and cap a guy who's clocked virtually no senior game-time and then drop the same guy a few months later for, well, having clocked virtually no senior game-time.

That, rather than the "O'Donnell just has to go" argument, is still where it feels harshest on Ralston though. The 23-year-old has played well and, crucially, played well often. He deserved the nod, even if there won't be many people genuinely shocked he never got it.

But from a certain point of view - not Ralston's, I'd wager, but still - it’s probably a bonus for Celtic if any of their regular contributors don’t get an international call-up at this stage of the season.

Postecoglou has said numerous times this term how proud and happy he is for his players when they get international recognition - and it's clear he's being genuine about that.

Yet, purely from a practical standpoint, not having some of your key players traipsing across the globe before the final run-in (including returning to a hectic month with potentially three Glasgow Derbies, lest we forget) is probably a blessing in disguise. You can’t get injured on international duty if you’re not on international duty.

Postecoglou has already suffered more than most during international windows. September, in particular, was a sore one.

"The last break wasn’t really kind to me," he jested when the October break rolled around. "So I’ve said to the players if anyone gets injured on international duty then don’t bother coming back."

Part and parcel of managing a club chock-full of quality players is having to deal with them leaving on national service every now and then. That doesn't make it any less dicy though, especially at this point in a tight campaign.

After the Ross County game on Saturday Postecoglou will surely spend each day dreading every ping of his mobile phone until all the members of his international contingent are returned to him in one piece.

And it is a considerable contingent. Taylor is joined in the Scotland squad by Hoops captain Callum McGregor while Josip Juranovic (Croatia), Carl Starfelt (Sweden), Stephen Welsh (Scotland Under-21s), Matt O'Riley (Denmark Under-21s), Giorgos Giakoumakis (Greece), Nir Bitton (Israel), Liel Abada (Israel), Tom Rogic (Australia), Daizen Maeda (Japan) and Reo Hatate (Japan) are all expected to be scooting off to various stadia the world over. 

There is an argument the ramifications of this international window could make or break the title race. It's vital it's not another injury-laden one for Celtic.

Ralston, at least, will be safely tucked away in Lennoxtown until it's over.