BENARTY football star Lucy Graham will have the chance to stake her claim for a World Cup berth after receiving a Scotland recall.

The 22-year-old midfielder, who plays her club football for Bristol City in the FA Women's Super League, has been named in a 23-strong pool selected by head coach, Shelley Kerr, for two friendly matches, the first of which takes place tomorrow (Thursday).

Lucy, who is joined in the squad by Manchester City's Dunfermline-born midfielder Caroline Weir, has impressed since moving south from Hibernian last summer and is bidding to add to her solitary cap when the Scots jet out to Spain to take on Norway and Iceland.

They will be the first preparation matches for Kerr's squad ahead of this summer's finals in France and the former St Columba's High School pupil has been rewarded for her fine form since joining the English side.

Talented Lucy, who netted twice on her City debut in August in a cup clash with Leicester City before hitting the winner against Brighton on her first league appearance the following month, made her international bow in September 2017 when she came off the bench during a 3-0 win in Hungary, which led to her being included once more for a World Cup qualifying double-header with Belarus and Albania the following month.

However, after arriving home from Minsk – where she didn't feature in Scotland's 2-1 win – she withdrew from the squad ahead of the game with Albania after receiving news that her mum, Ruth, had sadly passed away.

After some time away from football, Graham returned to the Scotland set-up for friendlies with New Zealand last March, and has once more been given the chance to impress at the start of a huge year for the women's team.

On the back of reaching their first-ever major tournament finals, the 2017 European Championships, Scotland dramatically pipped Switzerland to automatic qualification for the World Cup after the final round of matches in October.

After defeating the Swiss at home, they travelled to Albania for their final match and a 2-1 win – coupled with their rivals' failure to defeat Poland – enabled Kerr's team to clinch top spot.

Scotland open their World Cup campaign against England on June 9, before going on to face Japan and Argentina in Group D.