There is no sickness bug ravaging Rangers’ squad, unlike two reports claiming the group is blighted by illness.
France’s squad was under some kind of bug prior to the World Cup final, and there is a definite bug going round at the moment (not Covid) with a lot of the world succumbing to it, but it is NOT an issue at Ibrox despite reports to the contrary.
Manager Michael Beale said:
“There’s a sickness bug in the air too, obviously Leon fell foul of that last week. But I have full faith in whatever XI I picked to get a result.”
Beale mentions the bug as a generality, not that it is specifically hitting his squad right now or that he’s missing any players from it, but it hasn’t stopped some journos and clickbait sites making the claim to the contrary that there is a present bug doing the rounds within Rangers’ squad.
As far as we understand, while King was laid out with illness last week, he’s fine now (having done the presser indeed) and there is no epidemic sweeping through the squad taking Rangers players out of contention for starting tonight.
True, there might be one or two out through illness, that’s completely standard during flu season and is absolutely nothing new, but beyond the odd bug here and there, Rangers’ players should be very much fit and available to feature v Aberdeen at Pittodrie, aside Steven Davis, who’s the new injury case. And we’ll get to that later.
As for tonight, must-win, well, they all are aren’t they – but this one has added pressure. Beale’s first ‘major’ match as Rangers manager, at Pittodrie, at the vitriol and poison of Aberdeen who hate Rangers more than anyone and they will be hugely up for getting a major result.
Beale has a little weight on his shoulders for this one and the 3 points are a must.
But sickness isn’t an excuse and there is no bug sweeping the Ibrox squad aside Battle Fever.
We jest, Rangers need the win, and bug or no bug, there’s no prizes for anything less.