Scot Gemmill has described Kieron Bowie's injury as 'very disappointing' after the Hibs forward broke down during Scotland under-21s' victory over Malta.

The young Scots strolled to a 5-0 win on Tuesday afternoon, but lost Bowie to a hamstring injury which is now being 'assessed' by national team medical staff. The 21-year-old was starting his second game in four days for the 21s, in contrast to his carefully managed minutes at Easter Road, having not played since April having suffered a previous hamstring problem on loan at Northampton Town.

Bowie, a £600,000 signing from Fulham, had made four appearances off the bench so far for David Gray's side, scoring once in a 2-2 draw with Dundee. But now the Hibs head coach faces an anxious wait to discover the extent of the issue.

Under-21s manager Gemmill says the injury was the only downside to a convincing European Championship qualifying win, with strikes from Dane Murray, Josh Mulligan, Lennon Miller and Lewis Neilson - plus a Malta own goal - leaving Scotland second in the group, level on points with Belgium who they face next.

"It's not as easy as people think to come to these types of places where they are doing everything they can to stop you and the pitch isn't quite as good as it should be and it's hot and humid," said Gemmill. "But it's a great experience for the players and hopefully some of them will experience it for the full squad. It's brilliant we can look forward to the Belgium match. I've just said to the players to go back to the club and keep pushing. It was great to see the players scoring goals although I thought we were fortunate to keep a clean sheet to be honest.

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"On another night we might have easily conceded and that's something we need to look at because we have been solid defensively and we weren't tonight. They were two completely different approaches to the games against Spain last week and here.

"I was really keen to try and challenge the players to start well and full credit to them, that exactly what they did "The only dampener to the night was the injury to Kieron Bowie and he is being assessed now. It's very disappointing."