Richie Gray is reported to have joined up with the rest of the Scotland squad already in Japan ahead of the planned tour. He is even set to feature in the opening on Saturday.

The 26-year old is expected in the training session to be held on Tuesday, with the final team announced on Thursday.

Gray who is one of only three specialist locks in Scotland’s 27-man squad, along with brother Jonny and Tim Swinson. The American football star player would have to be declared fit by the team’s coach. The assistant coach, Matt Taylor said:

“We will wait to see what mental and physical shape he is in. He has been very good for us lately, so how he turns up will determine whether he comes in to consideration.

“Today’s training is not a full-on session in terms of a lot of the contact, it’s more about organisation. We have a hard session on Tuesday, when the bulk of the work will be done, and we hope he [Gray] will be involved in that.”

Scotland is set to travel to Nagoya on Wednesday 15th June with the first test billed for Saturday, 18th. The team would then travel to Tokyo the nest day with another test on Saturday the 25th. Their opponents, Japan has already warmed up for the tests with their 26-22 victory over Canada in Vancouver at the weekend.

Taylor said the Japanese team is quick to contact and that they try to play a high-tempo game, so their team would have to go out to put up the best performance as the Japs want to put a marker down. Gray played his last match for Castres on Sunday and is set for his move to Toulose next season.

The men’s national football team of Oman exited the second round of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, forcing the national coach Juan Ramon Lopez Caro to design an elaborate plan to fire up the team which will be free till early next year.

Lopez Caro announced that the team will have a series of domestic and international camps including couple of high-profile international friendly matches so far confirmed in August and November to keep the team in shape.

Lopez Caro anonuced this at a press conference at the Oman Football Association (OFA) headquarters on Monday, adding that the team would play Northern Ireland in the first of the international friendly on August 31 during its camp in Europe from August 17-September 6. They are also scheduled to play another friendly which will be hosted by Asian heavyweight Japan on November 11.

Lopez Caro said:

“My objective to host three domestic camps from June to August is to get a good idea of the new and promising players. I will have a good look and if they impress, then they could join the core group of the existing team.”

The first of the domestic camps will take place from the 1st day to the fifth next month with 26 young players with three players – Khalil al Darmaki (Al Ahli, UAE) Hisham al Shuaibi (Al Arouba) and Abdulaziz al Hosni (Muscat) – called up for the first time to national team. The rest of the players have represented the country in age-group or Under-23 Olympic teams.

The team will also hold a European camp in England or Scotland with friendly match planned during the period against Northern Ireland. The OFA also announced that they are working to ensure the national team play during FIFA days from October 3-11 and November 7-15 to ensure the team bound together and achieve results next year.