George Burley will touch down in Japan at lunchtime with his Scotland squad wondering if the 11,000-mile round trip for Saturday's friendly in Yokohama has not simply been jinxed from the outset.

Burley's plans are in shreds after the loss of 10 players to injury left him scrabbling to make up the numbers before the Scots began their marathon journey from Glasgow airport on Wednesday morning.

The Scottish Football Association travelling party had to then endure a scare on the first leg of their journey when their plane had to pull out of landing moments before it was due to touch down at Heathrow.

It is thought another plane was still on the runway as the British Airways flight carrying the footballers made its final approach.

Nobody was injured in the incident and SFA chief executive Gordon Smith, travelling with the Scotland party, played down the incident.

He said: "We were on our way down and then we took off again.

"If you were not a frequent flier then it might have been something but it has happened to me before.

"Indeed, the pilot said, 'I'll have another go at it,' and everyone started laughing."

The stop-off at London allowed Norwich's Stephen Hughes and Don Cowie of Watford to join the rest of the squad after being called in as last-gasp replacements for Manchester United midfielder Darren Fletcher and Tottenham full-back Alan Hutton.

Before hearing about Fletcher and Hutton, Burley had already lost Scott Brown, Shaun Maloney, Danny Fox, Kevin Thomson, Steven Naismith, Robert Snodgrass and Garry O'Connor. Scott Robertson of Dundee United was brought into the fold briefly but he too succumbed to injury.