BURNLEY captain Steven Caldwell has revealed his delight at earning his first Scotland call-up for three years.

The central defender is one of seven Clarets who will be on international duty next week, with Graham Alexander and record signing Steven Fletcher joining Caldwell for the crucial World Cup qualifier against Norway in Oslo next Wednesday.

Striker Martin Paterson, who has sat out the last four friendlies with a hamstring strain, has been selected for Northern Ireland’s friendly with Israel at Windsor Park, while young trio Kevin McDonald, Brian Easton and on-loan Alex MacDonald will meet up with Scotland Under 21s for a training camp.

But Caldwell admits it is a welcome return to the international scene.

“I’m really looking forward to getting back there; it’s been a long time but I’m relishing the prospect of maybe playing for my country again,” said the 27-year-old.

“Being out of the squad is one of those things but you keep working away and hopefully one day you can get back in there.

“I enjoyed last season and I was playing regularly in a successful team so it’s something that I hoped would come, but I’ve said a lot of times that I wasn’t going to dwell on it or worry about it too much because I knew if I was to play well then eventually a chance would come along and I would get back in there.”

However, the international calendar has proved to be a disruption to Burnley’s preparations for the new Premier League season, as Scotland’s qualifier and Northern Ireland’s friendly will be played just three days before the Clarets kick-off at Stoke City.

“Sometimes these things are decided between the different associations and other times they have to go into a computer,” he said.

“It is quite a strange time to have a game, but we’re not football players to worry about why we’re playing on a certain day, we just get the strip and go out there and try to win matches.

“We’re delighted to be there, we go out on that park, give 100 per cent and hopefully it’s good enough.”