Gordon Strachan baffled by Alan Hutton's Aston Villa exile

Scotland manager Gordon Strachan has described Alan Hutton's snub from the Aston Villa first team as a "mystery of football".

The right-back has not played a competitive game for the Premier League outfit since May 2012, but is a regular starter under Strachan at international level.

"He's been brilliant," the Birmingham Mail quotes Strachan as saying. "It's a mystery of football, how he's not getting a game somewhere.

"I look at other games in the Premier League, look at right backs and go, 'he's better than them'. I just think the club game misses his marauding runs.

"It's very strange he's not playing Premier League football because the games he's played for us recently have been outstanding."

Hutton, whose contract at Villa Park runs out in 2015, reportedly does not train with the senior squad under manager Paul Lambert.