Chris Cadden admits adding to his Scotland appearances is a major motivation after making an impressive start to his Hibernian career.
The former Motherwell player won two caps in the summer of 2018 but spent half of the next season on the sidelines following a knee injury.
The versatile player then had a successful loan spell with Oxford before joining up with Columbus Crew in Major League Soccer but found game time limited in the United States.
The 24-year-old has quickly adapted to life at Easter Road following his January move and has impressed in the right wing-back role.
The position has most recently been occupied for Scotland by Stephen O’Donnell and Liam Palmer, but Cadden’s return to regular action could put him in the frame ahead of three World Cup qualifiers later this month.
“It is a motivation,” Cadden said. “It’s the pinnacle of your career for me and what I have always wanted to do, and I have managed to do it twice over in Peru and Mexico. It was a joy for me and it was probably the best moment of my career.
“Scotland has always been an ambition that I have always wanted to do. To be able to do it twice has been amazing and hopefully I can do it more.
“I want to play for my country, I think every player should want to do that.”
Hibs head coach Jack Ross has been delighted with Cadden’s impact.
“I have been really, really pleased with him, first of all as a character and a personality,” Ross said ahead of Saturday’s trip to face St Johnstone.
“It was everything I expected from him after the homework we carried out on him.
“But his level of performance has maybe exceeded expectations just because he had a stop-start season last year with Columbus.
“So the fact he has not played regularly and has been one of our top performers in the past five or six games, I think he has more to show and I think he knows that.
“Because of the spells at Oxford and Columbus he has maybe been forgotten a little bit in terms of Scottish football because he was a really, really good young player at Motherwell. Hopefully we can give him the platform to show that again.
“I couldn’t be happier with him in terms of how he has performed and he still has improvement left as well.”
Hibs are looking to consolidate third place in the Scottish Premiership but there is an extra edge to their Perth trip following their 3-0 semi-final defeat against the newly-crowned Betfred Cup winners.
“Our motivation to win the game is because of where we want to finish in the league,” Ross said. “But any time your previous fixture against an opponent has been a bad result or a disappointing performance, you always want to put that right.
“So I don’t think it gives us extra motivation but it’s something we are aware of and the group will want to correct that because it was a sore day for us.”
