Gordon Strachan was left regretting his comments of the genetic make-up of the Scotland squad

Gordon Strachan admits he regrets bemoaning the genetic make-up of Scottish players while in charge of the national team.

The former Celtic boss, who left his post as Scotland manager in October, complained about the lack of height among the players at his disposal, claiming it was the cause for their failure to qualify for the World Cup.

"I shouldn't have brought the genetics thing up when I did. That's probably the only regret I've got from my time as Scotland manager," said Strachan.

Scotland boss Gordon Strachan says that genetically, the nation is behind the rest with the squad among the smallest in European Qualifying Scotland boss Gordon Strachan says that genetically, the nation is behind the rest with the squad among the smallest in European Qualifying

"What it did was allow the people who wanted to criticise a chance to say that it was ludicrous.

"But everybody knows it, everybody at the SFA and Scottish football.

"People are scared to put their head above the parapet now in case they get tarred with the same thing as me."

Following his comments, Strachan experienced a backlash from fans and he was left disappointed after SFA president Alan McRae failed to support his assertions.

Asked whether the public's negative response had affected the SFA's decision to sack him, he added: "I'd hope not because I spoke with one of the board members, Alan McRae, after we played England Under-21s.

Strachan was disappointed not to receive the support of SFA president Alan McRae following a public backlash

"He said: 'It was a mismatch in size, Gordon, they were huge compared to us'. Those were his exact words.

"So when it came out, and there was a silence from them I thought: 'OK'.

"They could have said: 'Gordon knows what he's talking about'. Alan's exact words were mismatch and height.

"I don't know if that was the criteria for getting another manager in. There is no point in us surmising about that, maybe that was never mentioned in their board meeting. It was my mistake in talking about it.

"People were saying: 'Would he not have picked Messi, then', which is just a stupid conversation. But there's no doubt that sometimes you need physical size."