Is Steven Gerrard ready to make major call on 22-year old?

On Sunday Steven Gerrard may have a huge decision to make. And it’s been a simmering issue for the past month. Few Rangers fans would deny we haven’t really taken to Nottingham Forest’s on-loan stopper Joe Worrall especially well.

While never exactly disgracing himself, Rapid Vienna aside he’s hardly stood out much either, generally being the epitome of ‘standard’ and especially struggling against Hearts’ physical presence in the form of Ikpeazu who simply overpowered him on a number of occasions in the first half.

And yet his place in the side has come at the expense of firm fans-favourite Nikola Katic, and for every passing match where the English stopper starts, more and more fans ask for the Croatian instead in disbelieving outrage.

This is not to say Worrall is hopeless. No, he isn’t. But Katic has just been a mountain for Gerrard so far and while he’s made a small amount of errors, his sudden and rather ruthless ditching to the bench has certainly not been favoured by his fans, Ibrox Noise very much included.

We just don’t know why he finds himself on the sidelines these days. He did nothing major wrong, and frequently put himself in the hurt for his club.

And yet it’s the 6/10 Worrall who plays these days, leaving many fans to argue about loan clauses and appearance guarantees.

Whatever the truth is, Worrall does seem to be the first choice, and we can’t imagine Katic returning this weekend. The Forest loanee has not consistently earned his place, but then Ryan Kent had one hell of a slow start as well and he’s now indispensable on current form, so perhaps there is still plenty room for Worrall to improve.

But equally, loan clauses aside, we remain puzzled as to why he’s apparently receiving that room for improvement when Katic sits idly by, waiting for his opportunity.

Perhaps the Croat is more seriously injured than we realised, but if so, why is he on the bench?

It’s a situation in which we are very interested to observe how it develops.