CHERRIES winger Ryan Fraser revealed it was his decision not to face Kazakhstan in Scotland’s first fixture of the international break.

The 25-year-old sat out the 3-0 defeat during his country’s Euro 2020 qualifier in the Astana Arena and was instead part of the Dorset club’s warm-weather training camp in Dubai.

Scotland boss Alex McLeish declared both Fraser and Callum Paterson would be left out under an agreement with their clubs that they would not feature on artificial pitches.

The pair were criticised by former Scotland captain Darren Fletcher.

Former Aberdeen star Fraser returned for Sunday's 2-0 victory in San Marino and set up Kenny McLean's early opener.

The Cherries star suffered a knee ligament injury during training with Scotland under-21s which kept him out for several months in 2015.

Fraser said: "Obviously you want to play in every game but I couldn't play in the game.

"I've had four or five injuries on an artificial pitch and, look, from my club, to me, to Scotland, it's just one of those where I couldn't play on it.

“If I do a knee, if I do anything like that... It's a decision I made."