With Abdallah Sima’s potential season-ender now the latest Rangers injury, Ibrox Noise takes you through the full list, to see what on earth is going on with Rangers and why Philippe Clement’s solutions have as yet not borne any fruit with this club.

Sima:

We begin with the Senegalese. He’s out for God knows how long, and that’s a BIG loss of goals. He was borderline free-scoring, and ‘thanks’ to injury on duty in AFCON, he seems to have had a very nasty thigh tear. More will be known in the next 24 hours on the severity but expect the worst here. Has he played his last match for Rangers? It’s possible.

Kemar Roofe:

There’s no diagnosis, prognosis, and indeed the Jamaican perennially-injured striker has sadly become a running joke, with fans afraid he’ll be injured by signing a new contract and be out for another 6 weeks. It’s really diabolical how often this boy has been sidelined and he won’t be getting a new deal.

Dujon Sterling:

This one was missed by Philippe Clement when he was summarising the missing players, which either means he forgot about the ex-Chelsea man, or he’s back fit again. He missed two matches, having had a knock in Spain, and we really hope he’s back for Hibs. He’s a huge absence.

Ben Davies:

He’s really not a miss, but he’s said to be homing in on a return. The big issue with his injury is Rangers were unable to sell him this window. Davies will never be a fan favourite.

Danilo:

He basically misses the season. He’s long-term and we would be very surprised to see him again before preseason. We’d also be surprised if he figured in Clement’s plans going forward. Massive, long-term injuries often see the player replaced, and the game of football go past them in their absence.

Kieran Dowell:

Had an ok time on a brief return to the team, but got horribly ripped in Spain on the pitch and now faces a long time out as a result of surgery. He is likely to miss much of the season now.

Jose Cifuentes:

This is a weird one. He did feature in Spain but vanished for Dumbarton and posted a strange update on social media quoting the bible:

“Despite feeling tough sometimes, this breakup is still painful. It’s like cutting away part of your body and you feel like you’re expected to heal immediately. But God doesn’t want you to dismiss your pain, or for you to pretend like you feel no pain. Instead, He wants you to be honest with Him as He helps you through it.. Surgical removal procedures are done to remove things that are considered life threatening to the body. After a surgery, you’re not expected to jump back into your usual routine like everything is perfect. You have to go through a healing process, and prayer is an essential part of this. Prayer is like your medication. Believe that something is truly happening when you pray, but just like any other medication, you have to consistently take it and follow instructions. Don’t be double minded or undecided in your prayers. Pray with belief that God will come through. James 1:6-7 tells us that a double minded person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. When we go before God to ask for anything, we must ask with faith that He is our healer and has declared us “whole.” Live with Romans 8:18 in your heart in this season and remain hopeful about the glory to come. Believe it or not, one day you will thank God for this pain, and the lessons you learned. After investing so much into this relationship, your body needs to recover, so please don’t rush the process. The pain goes even deeper than just our human bodies and we can feel spiritually wounded also… Fear not, Dr. Jesus is more than ready to operate on your heart and guide you through rehab.”

Your guess is as good as ours on that one.

Jack and Lawrence:

They are fit again, ish, but we fear both of them breaking down again, so these are middling ones. Jack has very little chance of a new deal.

Now, one who was always injured during his last spell is Leon Balogun, but this time round he’s been strong and available. So that is at least positive.

So what is going on?

It’s hard to pinpoint. Clement proposed a change in lifestyle and using cryo a lot more, but as we’re seeing, despite the return of Dr Mark Waller also, Rangers players still drop like flies. Celtic have nothing like the same issues, so where does this stem from?

We’ve had injury crises before – Dick Advocaat suffered legendary issues as manager, and we’ve had them under Gio – it’s nothing to do with who is boss.

While the players have cryo, we don’t think that’s the be-all-and-end all answer, not that we’re doctors.

Clement is bewildered and frustrated, ditto the fans, which leaves only one answer:

Absolutely damn bad luck.

We honestly do not have a more cogent reason than that, if a manager of the calibre of Clement, a cryo chamber and a fitness guru like Waller can’t seem to fix this, then what else aside pure ill fortune we got?

A hex bag?!

Answers on a postcard.