Philippe Clement has confirmed Abdallah Sima is out ‘long term’ following his injury at the AFCON, with the Rangers attacker suffering a serious thigh issue at the Ivory Coast.

Speaking at his pre-Hibs presser, Rangers’ boss Clement admitted he’d be getting the full extent from scans this week, but did concede this is not a short term absence.

He said:

“It will be long term, that’s why I want to have the right information. I expect to have more news from my medical team [on Tuesday] or at the latest Wednesday.”

Without anyone yet having the full prognosis, which is expected over the next 36 hours, the exact absence period cannot be estimated, but it does appear Rangers could have lost Sima for the season.

At the very least, this kind of injury tends to be a minimum of two to three months, which means like Danilo, Sima won’t be properly fit again till the Split at the earliest, and even then he will be months behind on match fitness.

Which effectively suggests his season is mostly done and leaves Rangers needing to replace him immediately.

It’s a blow, no doubt. He wasn’t great in terms of his quality on the left wing, he had a poor passing range and his composure wasn’t impressive, plus his dribbling went nowhere as he lost the ball most times, but the pure finishing was excellent.

He was a very natural goalscorer, which we first saw v PSV with that ‘from nowhere’ stunner in the qualifiers.

He never really scored ordinary goals, always finding excellent finishes even when playing poorly.

But all sides of him will now be absent and we’d half expect his loan to be cut short because Abdallah Sima is no use to us now.

At best he will be fully match fit by May, and that’s optimistic.

Rangers will need a replacement ASAP.