
Aside all the other issues Rangers manager Philippe Clement has to deal with, the injury blight has returned, in yet another example of stuff he said last season which he’s completely failed on.
That is, his claim that he would be sorting out Rangers’ diabolical ongoing injury crisis, and with two new ones added to this, the Ibrox treatment room is more full than ever.
Going into the trip to Pittodrie on Wednesday, Rangers are either without, or have as a huge doubt:
John Souttar, Rabbi Matondo, Ridvan Yilmaz, Tom Lawrence, Oscar Cortes and Danilo, meaning Clement could be without 6 players for the crunch clash in the north of Scotland.
Souttar of course is a big, big blow, with Clement doing a 180 on his claim that Souttar was just ‘tired’ and being rested for St Mirren – it turns out he’s 100% injured and will be a big struggle to make Wednesday.
Lawrence is a new one, hurt against FCSB, he was unavailable v St Mirren and the manager ‘doesn’t know’ if he’s available for midweek.
And the others we already kind of know about, they are all either injured or slowly returning and still not anywhere near match fit.
There is also a case regarding Leon Balogun and Ianis Hagi – the former is aging and not able for 3 matches in a row, barely indeed able for two, while Hagi is some distance off match fitness and has been out in the Rangers cold for 3 weeks since his suspension.
Which means Rangers have question marks over 8 players’ availability for this trip, which certainly reduces the options.
Robin Propper has been a pretty dreadful acquisition since arriving from FC Twente, and fans aren’t too won over by him, but he may have to start tomorrow.
It doesn’t help Clement one bit. But then… these are the players he signed…