Rangers defender Ridvan Yilmaz has been confirmed as sustaining a thigh injury against Hungary and is a gigantic doubt now for the Old Firm having been sent home from his international camp.

The Turkish FA confirmed the blow this afternoon:

“Our defender Rıdvan Yılmaz was removed from the candidate squad due to the injury he suffered in his upper left thigh muscle in the match against Hungary yesterday.”

In short, he’s been sent home like Abdallah Sima from AFCON and curiously, with the same injury.

This isn’t good news – if Ridvan has a thigh tear, and it’s possible he does, he’s done for the season, meaning Rangers are going to have to rely on Borna Barisic to get us over the line for the rest of the campaign.

And that is bad news indeed.

Yilmaz had finally, at long last secured form and his place in the team, well-earned, and his run in the side was excellent.

He was proving the transfer fee for him was money well-invested even if it took 16 months to start bearing fruit.

And this injury on international duty is very, very cruel timing and is likely to rule him out for some weeks at best if it is indeed as serious as a thigh tear.

The best we can hope is that this was precautionary and that he will be ok for Celtic’s visit, but unfortunately with Rangers’ luck this season we’d suggest that’s optimistic at best.

Either way, Ridvan was sent home by Turkey and is certainly a huge doubt for Hibs’ visit at the very least.

If he’s genuinely fit to face the Old Firm then it’s a minor miracle.