Chris Iwelumo is hoping to take advantage of Kenny Miller’s misfortune and complete a 14-year journey to the Scotland team.

Miller’s hamstring problems means that the absence of a Molineux favourite from a different era has enhanced the international prospects of the club’s most prosperous current goal-getter. 

Iwelumo’s story has been one of the talking points within the Scottish camp this week as their next World Cup qualifier, against Norway, approaches on Saturday.

Now 30, a Scotland debut would end a long, long journey for Iwelumo spanning 11 clubs and four countries since he started as a teenager at St Mirren in the mid-90s. 

The son of a Nigerian surgeon and Glaswegian nurse, he scored on his debut as an 18-year-old against Dumbarton and also defied racist abuse from the sidelines as he made his way in the Scottish game.

“He was just a schoolboy,” said his former manager at St Mirren, Jimmy Bone. “Within a month of training with the first team, he was in it.

“He was absolutely massive. Brian Hetherston gave him the nickname ‘High Tower’. He had the fortunate habit of scoring goals on a regular basis. He was more than a targetman, he was very mobile and he could get around the pitch well.”

He was subjected to racist taunts but refused to let them affect him. 

“He had a bit about him,” adds Bone. “He was very confident and that meant we could put him into the first team without any worries, even though he was young.”

Iwelumo recalls the unorthodox coaching of Tony Fitzpatrick, another of his former St Mirren managers. “He’d use reverse psychology on me,” said Iwelumo. “He’d say, I’ve been speaking to the opposing manager and he doesn’t think you’ve got anything that can hurt his team.

“Every single game he’d do it to try and get that extra bit of aggression out of me. If I did have a good game he’d think his trick had worked.”

After that breakthrough, the travelling began. First to Aarhus in Denmark, where he continued to learn his trade. 

Iwelumo spent 18 months in Denmark before returning to Britain and a four-and-half-year spell at Stoke, including several loan spells. 

In 2005, he joined Alemannia Aachen, a second division side in Germany who had qualified for the UEFA Cup

After that came his return to England where regular goal-scoring at Colchester and now Wolves – following an unhappy spell at Charlton – have forced George Burley to concede to the player’s determination to play for his country,

Iwelumo once claimed that he would “have to put Mac in front of my surname” to make it to the Scotland squad. But now he is set to defy his own pessimism while rewarding his own determination.

“He is a different type from what we have got,” added Bone. “Against Norway, we might need something like that.”

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