EDDIE Howe believes ‘Wee Man’ Ryan Fraser can hit the heights with his country – providing he continues to focus on his form with Cherries.

The flying winger was this week named by head coach Malky Mackay in the Scotland squad for a friendly against Holland in Aberdeen, Fraser’s home town.

Mackay took the reins on an interim basis after Gordon Strachan had departed as boss following the Tartan Army’s failed 2018 World Cup qualification campaign.

Despite being included in a number of Strachan’s squads, Fraser picked up just one cap, coming off the bench in the 2-2 draw against England at Hampden Park in June.

Fraser, whose international aspirations have also been hampered by injury, recently expressed his frustration at a lack of game time during Strachan’s tenure.

The 23-year-old did not feature in last month’s 1-0 win over Slovakia before withdrawing due to injury ahead of the defeat by Slovenia which ended Scotland’s World Cup dream.

Fraser, who joined Cherries in a £400,000 move from Aberdeen in January 2013, also played no part in qualifiers against Lithuania and Malta in September.

Should he recover from a minor hamstring problem, Fraser will be hoping for better fortunes when Scotland face Holland on his old stomping ground Pittodrie a week tomorrow.

Cherries boss Howe told the Daily Echo: “Like any player, when you go away on international duty and don’t play, you are a little frustrated.

“Every player wants to play and perform. Ryan had a little taste of it and those experiences are so rewarding.

“You want it again and, when you don’t get it, there is a feeling of frustration. First and foremost, Ryan has to concentrate on his club form.

“If he performs well for us at the level he is playing, I think the rest will take care of itself so I don’t see any problem with him long term, although there has been a bit of short-term frustration.”

Strachan, speaking in the aftermath of Scotland’s failure to qualify for the World Cup, raised eyebrows when he said he felt genetics had been partly to blame.

“Genetically, we are behind,” he said, following the defeat in Ljubljana. “Genetically, we have to work at things. It is a problem for us.”

A survey carried out by CIES Football Observatory, published yesterday, found there was no correlation between the average height of a team's players and its success, with Cherries the third shortest team in the Premier League.

And although Fraser – who stands at 5ft 4ins – is one of the shortest players in the top flight, Howe said he did not think there were any problems with the genetics in Scotland.

Asked whether he would pick a team based on height, Howe said: “It does come into focus at times for us. We are not the biggest and can have two different types of teams.

“If we picked our smallest players, we would be a real weakness from set-plays. Likewise, sometimes you can look at our team and think we have real height.

“In the Premier League, when you look at the other teams, genetically, they are very strong, very quick and very big and you have to be able to compete with that. Sometimes you have to think about set-plays with the balance of your team.”