Celtic winger James Forrest has vowed not to read too much into his recent Scotland exclusion and be ready when called upon by Alex McLeish.

Forrest emerged as a key player under Gordon Strachan, starting in four World Cup  qualifying wins last year, but did not feature at all in last month's games against Belgium and Albania.

McLeish did not start with wingers in those games, using his wing-backs for width instead, but he has picked Forrest in his latest squad for games against Israel and Portugal.

"He spoke to me after the Albania game and just said it wasn't to be for those two games but he said I was still in his plans," Forrest said.

"Every time you go away it's different formations and not always the same team so I just need to keep working hard, not look too much into it and be ready for the next two games coming up."

The 27-year-old added: "Obviously I was disappointed. If you ask any player, if they don't play, they'll say that. At the same time, I was glad we got the good win against Albania."

Forrest's immediate concern is Celtic's Europa League encounter at Salzburg as they look to build on their opening group win over Rosenborg.

"We've started with one out of one so far in the Europa League so we'll take confidence from that," Forrest said.

"But we definitely know they're going to  be a difficult team and they got a good result in their first game as well.

"Every game in Europe, home and away, is always tough so we know we need to be ready right from the start and put in a good performance."