The Hearts captain played a huge part in the country reaching next year’s finals in the USA, Canada and Mexico, putting them 2-1 up on Denmark in the final qualifier after coming on as a sub. After the Danes hit back through Patrick Dorgu, Kieran Tierney regained the lead and Kenny McLean put the icing on the cake with a pair of stunners.

Shankland will hope to clinch his place in the squad with his call-up for that camp coming after a period of missing out. As the Premiership’s leading goalscorer, he will give himself a great chance if he keeps up his club form.

Back on club duty after his international exploits, the 30-year-old has been looking ahead to a big game on the road to Aberdeen on Sunday.

And asked that question about a dream club and country double, he has joked he wouldn’t have anything left to do in the game. But, on a more serious note, he says confidence is high while still taking note of the club’s poor record at Pittodrie.

“I’d need to retire I think,” he told Sky Sky Sports. “No, we’ve always been the same at the club. We’ve focused on one game at a time and that’s been good for us so far.

“It’s another tough game up at Aberdeen. It’s a place we’ve not got a brilliant record at in the past to be honest. Both teams being at home in this fixture, but it’s one that we’re confident we can go and win. We’re a good team, we’re in a good place and we’ve got that confidence.”

If there wasn’t already more than enough motivation to keep performing for Hearts, Shankland knows he will need to be at it between now and the summer to ensure his place on the plane to North America.

He added: “Of course it’s a motivation, you want to be there. You’ve played your part in the qualification, so you want to make sure you give yourself the best chance of being on that plane and that’s what I’ll do.

“Work hard, keep doing what I’m doing at Hearts and when we get to the time when the squad’s getting picked, hopefully I’ve got a really good case on my hands.”

Scotland players, Shankland among them, were seen partying in Glasgow into the late hours of Tuesday night and beyond.

He admits he enjoyed himself, which you need to make sure you do in moments of that magnitude.

“It was brilliant,” he said. “They’re the moments you need to enjoy as well.

“When you succeed together and you get that success, you need to celebrate the moments because there’s a lot of down in football, a lot of hard times and when you do get the good moments, it’s important you enjoy them. So luckily we’ve had a couple of nights together with the boys at Scotland and it was another good one.”