Last night’s Covid shocker from Ibrox was certainly unexpected, albeit Ibrox Noise received word on it before it was announced, with swilling ‘rumours’ about who the positives are.

We are aware of a number of players who are alleged to be isolating now as a result of this, along with many more close contacts, but given nothing is official and it would not be helpful to spread rumours without 100% concrete proof we will refrain from mentioning them.

That said, it has colossal implications for this weekend’s trip to Armenia, and it’s safe to say all eyes will be on the press snaps of the players for the flight, because we’re pretty sure the club will not have an official photographer for that part.

There is enough work to do to get to the group stage of the UEL without all this distraction via fan detective work of photos. So we doubt there’ll be official pics this time, but, we could be wrong.

But the implications are gigantic. We know of at least 6 named players who potentially are out of both the UEL clash and the weekend. And we can confirm that 4 of them would definitely have started this match.

We’re already missing Ryan Jack and Niko Katic, not to mention Fashion Sakala, so more losses are far from helpful.

Or are they?

The squad definitely requires some freshening up and an enforced few changes might not be the worst thing ever. Look at how well the fringe squad did v Real when called upon.

That kind of hunger, aside v Ross County, has been a bit lacking so this could be a blessing in some disguise, perhaps.

But it unsettles the team and frankly the impact psychologically of having so many players, potentially, self-isolating is massive.

This week is already the biggest test of Steven Gerrard’s Rangers career in terms of overcoming adversity.

Over to him.