Rangers are set to be boosted after the international break by the much-needed returns of Nico Raskin, Rabbi Matondo, Scott Wright and John Souttar, with all four missing recent action through injury but the quartet closing in on returns.
Livingston came a bit early for the players, with manager Philippe Clement optimistic that the two week break from domestic action will give all four the precious recovery time of no club football, with 14 days to fully get back to fitness.
Kemar Roofe is exempt from this and is medium-to-long term absent again.
Aside the Jamaican, when action returns in two weeks, Philippe Clement should, if all is pure and holy, have an entirely fit squad at his disposal.
Meaning:
Butland, McCrorie, Wright, Tavernier, Sterling, Devine, Goldson, King, Balogun, Souttar, Davies, Yfeko, Barisic, Ridvan, Lundstram, Jack, Raskin, Cifuentes, Cantwell, Lawrence, McCausland, Dowell, Sima, Wright, Lammers, Matondo, Danilo, and Dessers.
The only missing name is Roofe and that’s 28 players total which should be enough to get the club to the January window.
Of course, we’re sure there will be more injuries – it is now eking into winter time where more pulls happen, but for now, by two weeks time, Clement should with a bit of luck have the most fit players Rangers have had available in a very, very long time.
Apart from the Jamaican, naturally.
Clement has been at pains to say he wants more players, a bigger squad, the ability to rotate and swap and change players frequently regardless of how they are playing, in order to have an adaptable squad available for different matches, and so far we’ve probably seen less evidence of this than we’d like with a number of players clearly still very regular indeed.
But that may change come January.