Stevie may hand shock place to forgotten man – and here’s why

Steven Gerrard could be set to give an unexpected chance to out-of-favour striker Umar Sadiq on Sunday, following the club’s official confirmation that Kyle Lafferty has indeed been barred from participating v Hamilton.

The colossal Nigerian striker has had a thoroughly dreadful time of it in Glasgow, be it from questions over his own attitude to struggles of fitting in, the ex-Breda hitman has been so poor in Scotland it’s led his manager to publicly castigate him, for right or for wrong.

However, mercifully he was back at training this week with the rest following the end of the international break, and with Gerrard’s second-choice forward not available, Sadiq may find a place on the bench.

There have been suggestions, from both Gerrard’s camp and fans at large, that he might actually consider Ryan Kent instead for such a role, and that may indeed remain a possibility, but Rangers are paying the on-loan Roma forward’s wages right now and frankly might as well get something in return for that.

There is little doubt Sadiq has talent – you don’t score 5 in 13 for a bottom five Dutch team if you don’t know the way to goal, and he’s even delivered in Serie A for his parent team.

But he has evidently struggled with life in Scotland, and if Stevie can coax some talent out of him then we could at least have a plan B option for Sunday on the undesirable plastic pitch at New Douglas Park.

Indeed, said plastic pitch might even see Sadiq given a stronger chance given Gerrard won’t want to risk too many of his AAA stars on such a playing surface given how many injuries may already be currently brewing.

But we’ll see come Sunday what the manager plumps for.