We wanted to publish a piece informing you that Rangers’ injury troubles were looking significantly faded and just two men were out, with Joe Aribo’s new ankle injury and of course Niko Katic’s long-term ACL, but sadly instead of being able to go with that 100% optimistic angle, Allan McGregor has been added to the potentially long-term injury absentee list with an imminent scan on his knee over the weekend and Jordan Jones’ injury, while mild, will also rule him out for the weekend.

It is ‘only’ three men, but we’d definitely want both Aribo and McGregor fit, while Katic is probably about covered by the four in-form stoppers Steven Gerrard has at the back and Jones isn’t exactly in full favour.

So it’s a bit of a mixed bag, and while there’s never a ‘good’ time to be hit by injuries, this point, where 95% of the squad is ready, fit, in form and raring to go, is probably one of the less horrible.

McGregor’s deputy, Jon McLaughlin, is in fine fettle, while Rangers do not wont for options up front with a host of players to choose from, but Saturday comes slightly too early for Jordan Jones, as the NI attacker is effectively fit and will certainly be fully available for selection by around Monday but for now is just recovering from a mild quad issue.

Overall, there are four players not directly available for Saturday:

Allan McGregor, Niko Katic, Joe Aribo, and Jordan Jones.

And depending on how you look at it, that’s either perfectly accommodatable or a little troubling to see a handful of absentees suddenly building up.

The squad is overall in good shape, and there’s a wealth of options to choose from, but we’d rather have everyone available.

Que sera.