Despite Rangers manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s cryptic denials, it seems captain James Tavernier IS carrying an injury with rumours he’s to undergo surgery and will miss the end of the year start of next as a result.

We haven’t got final confirmation of that, but no one can deny his wincing in at least one of the training videos recently, and he’s certainly not been on the boil this season with regards his form, same as potential fellow injury-defying John Lundstram.

As Ibrox Noise said, we’re one injury to Tavernier away from having to rely on Adam Devine, who has hardly sparkled on his cameos thus far, leaving Rangers’ already abysmally-threadbare squad down to the marrow never mind bone.

And it’s likely the club knows this, and is doing everything it can to keep Tav fit enough to make it at least to the world cup, which gives a month’s respite to all injured players who can focus purely on recovery without the same pressure an active schedule of matches brings.

It’s an absolutely horrific state Rangers’ squad is in – we’ve lost practically an entire first team to long term injuries, with the number of players ‘out till 2023’ growing, seemingly, by the week, and Tavernier would be the latest alumni on this list.

As for Devine – young, green, and hardly vintage, the lad hasn’t shone the way Nathan Patterson did on his cameos, and just because a kid is coming up from Auchenhowie doesn’t automatically make them good enough for the senior team at Ibrox. Patterson was patently obviously a top, top player, Devine doesn’t look to have the same aura at all.

And while Tav’s form isn’t great either, he’s basically all we have right now.

How long for? The man isn’t the bionic man any more than Goldson is, and now that it looks like Tav too has been playing with an injury and through the pain barrier, time will tell exactly how much longer he can last doing so before he does indeed need time offline.

Previously we had Patterson to cover, now we really don’t. Not ideal by a long way.