Rangers have confirmed that Jake Hastie will not be part of the Progres double header after the young winger was excluded from the official squad to face the Luxembourg minnows.

The former Motherwell winger has had a solid start to life at Ibrox, but hasn’t quite stood out enough yet to warrant regular slots in the first team, and Gerrard has instead elected to leave him out of the 22-man squad for the second qualifying round tie.

It’s a little bit of a surprise, albeit had been strongly speculated, and while Gerrard will likely again talk about numbers as he did over Candeias, Hastie will not be thrilled to be missing this one after his high-profile move from Fir Park this summer.

The great irony is that Hastie of course plays in Candeias’ position on the right, so it appears Gerrard, for now, is confirming Sheyi Ojo (and Scott Arfield) is his number one choice for that slot.

Let’s just hope he produces better on Thursday than he has in his last two outings.