EVEN with players pulling out of the Scotland squad for the tour of Peru and Mexico on an almost hourly basis earlier this month, Lewis Stevenson still refused to believe he had been called up by his country.

With Barry Douglas, Andy Robertson, Kieran Tierney and, when fit, Lee Wallace all ahead of him in the pecking order, the Hibernian left back had resigned himself to never getting the chance to represent his country at senior level.

So when Frank Reilly, the SFA national team administrator, phoned to let him know that he had been drafted in as a late replacement for the trip to South and Central America, the 30-year-old was convinced it was a practical joke.

“I thought someone was at the wind-up,” he said from the Scotland training base in Lima. “It was Frank Reilly, who I knew from the under-21s. But I didn’t have his number at the time. I heard the name Reilly and thought it was Mike Riley, who is the ex-chairman of the Hibs Supporters Association.

“I was dropping my wee girl off at gymnastics at the time and I was trying to get my head round what he was on about. It took me about five minutes to figure out which Reilly it was, and that it was a serious phone call.

“You get to 30 and you think it’s never going to happen, to be honest. I was as surprised as anyone when I got the phone call. But I spoke to the manager, he said I’d had a good season and I shouldn’t be surprised I was in the squad.”

Stevenson added: “Even when I was doing alright at Hibs I never thought it was going to happen because of the players ahead of me. The left-backs we’ve got aren’t just top quality, they are world class players.

“That’s probably the reason I didn’t get myself down or feel it was hard luck I am a left back. We are spoiled for choice and I’m under no illusions that I maybe wouldn’t be in the squad if they were fit.

“It’s been 10 years since I was with the under-21s so it’s been a lot of ups and downs in between. But personally and for Hibs it was a great season and getting picked for the squad really tops it off.

“The quality Scotland have in that department could match probably any team in Europe so I just focused on day to day at Hibs and was enjoying it there. This has been a bonus. But I don’t want to just go and make the numbers, I want to try to do my best and see what happens.”

Robertson will be playing for Liverpool in the Champions League final in Kiev this evening while Tierney has been excused the trip at the end of another successful season with Celtic to give him time to prepare for their opening European qualifiers in July.

Stevenson knows that his prospects of being involved when the first Nations League gets underway with a game against Albania at Hampden in September, when both Robertson and Tierney as well as Douglas of Wolves, should be available for selection, are minimal.

But strange things can and do happen in international football. Stevenson intends to perform at the best of his abilities in the coming days to show McLeish that he is a viable option if he is needed in future.

“You can only do your best and see what happens from there,” he said. “The other Scotland left backs are probably in the world class bracket. If I can help in any way I will do everything I can. I might never get the chance again. I need to make the most of it.”

Stevenson, who was given a testimonial by Hibs last year to mark the 10 years he has spent in the first team at Easter Road, believes his club manager, Neil Lennon, deserves enormous credit for him, John McGinn and Dylan McGeouch getting into the Scotland set-up.

He feels the Northern Irishman has changed the way that he and his team mates approach games and made them far more competitive and feels his call-up is a consequence of having a far harder edge to his game.

“The manager wanted to get rid of that so-called boy band mentality which maybe in my younger years I was part of,” he said. “I think I have changed as a player. Honestly, the club is night and day from what it was five or six years ago.

“It is hard to put into words. I think I have always been a decent professional. Maybe I was a soft touch. Maybe the mentality of wanting to win every game wasn’t there. We used to go to Rangers and Celtic and if we got beat 1-0 or 2-0 that was alright. Now if it is anything other than a win and the manager isn’t happy.

“That has showed this year. We got our highest points total. I don’t think if Hibs had done as well as they have that I would be in the squad. I probably owe it to the manager and to my team mates as well.”

While Stevenson is realistic about his chances of featuring again for Scotland going forward he believes that McGinn, who has won seven caps under Gordon Strachan and McLeish, and McGeouch can establish themselves as regulars with their country in future.

“I see John and Dylan (McGeouch) as well day in, day out,” he said. “They are the best I have seen at Hibs for a long time. I am sure they are going to go on and have great careers.

Hopefully, they can stick a bit at Hibs if possible, but they are top players and they are going to receive interest from teams. But they have both got the ability and mentality to go on and become big players for Scotland.

“John has got a bit of everything. He can score goals, he can break up play and he is probably the strongest boy I have ever played with. Not just that, he works hard for the team and isn’t scared to do the dirty work. I haven’t seen anybody kick the ball as far as he can kick it as well.”