Football star who snubbed chance to play for Scotland called up by England boss Thomas Tuchel

Scotland manager Steve Clarke had been keen to persuade Barnes to represent his nation, with the wide player eligible through his maternal grandparents, but those efforts have ultimately proved unsuccessful.

Barnes will now compete for a place on the plane to the tournament in North America.

Barnes links up with his England teammates on Tuesday, having featured for 76 minutes in Newcastle's disappointing 2-1 loss to local rivals Sunderland at the weekend.

The winger's Scottish heritage comes through his mother's side of the family, making him eligible to represent Clarke's side at international level.

However, Barnes has made clear his preference is to wear the England shirt, effectively ending speculation about a potential switch north of the border.

While the upcoming fixtures are friendlies rather than competitive matches, meaning Barnes could technically still declare for Scotland in the future, his decision appears to firmly close the door on representing the Scots at this summer's tournament.

Tuchel views the forthcoming matches against Colombia and Japan as an opportunity to assess players on the fringes of his squad, with the German coach stating they can "win plane tickets" to the World Cup being held across the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The England manager has assembled a big group for these fixtures, giving those selected a final opportunity to stake their claim before the domestic season concludes.

Clarke, meanwhile, has conceded that his pursuit of Barnes has come to nothing, acknowledging the winger's determination to represent England.

"It's the perennial question, everybody keeps asking me about it," Clarke told BBC Radio 5 Live.

"This time I can say for sure, Harvey's going to concentrate on trying to play for England, he's not going to come to Scotland."

Meanwhile, Tuchel said last week that England are leaving no stone unturned as they seek a first international trophy since the 1966 World Cup.

"My general thoughts are March is like a bit of an odd one, like the June one," he said when asked for his thoughts going into the international break.

"It is in a period where players are heavily involved in cup semi-finals, Champions League semi-finals and at the end of the season, they fight for not being relegated or making international or European places, fighting for championships and for titles, so it is a very stressful and very demanding period of time.

"We have obviously done our homework, we have qualified, so it leaves us with two friendlies which is a good thing.

"The opponents are very strong opponents, given the style of play and given the ranking.

"It has its demands, this window. We decided then to divide it in basically two camps almost, so we bring players in that we haven’t seen that haven’t played so much to open up the picture and to open up the competition for plane tickets to the US.

"Then from Friday/Saturday, a group of players will come into camp – 10 or 11 players will come who get a rest before and we will then go with a new group of players and a new mix of players into the match against Japan."

He added: "I’m convinced we will have two hungry teams to play Uruguay and Japan. I am convinced we need two hungry teams because the opponents are very different from each other but very, very good football teams.

"We need top quality, we need hunger and excitement to create excitement. That’s our goal."