It’s certainly taken Nedim Bajrami some time to settle at Rangers, with the Albanian a very curious addition.
The former Salernitana playmaker was an odd choice of signing from Nils Koppen and Philippe Clement, and it’s safe to say he took a very long time to settle.
Strong
But as seen in the last month or so, he has finally come onto a game and started looking like one of Rangers’ strongest attacking forces.
So it stands to reason that right when he hit that form, he gets injured.
Yes, once again the criminal Killie pitch, being replaced with real turf for 26/27 season, has claimed another victim.
Surface
We knew as soon as he went off early at Rugby Park, it wasn’t good. Despite the club and Danny Rohl saying it was worse than first feared, anyone with experience of this dire surface knows how damaging it is.
Ask Oscar Cortes who could probably blame that turf for why his Rangers career failed – that and dire management from Philippe Clement putting him out there.
Some could argue the same about Rohl – fielding a ‘slender’ and ‘frail’ playmaker on a pitch of that nature, but equally, few attackers are actually robust and all of them are taking a risk on that plastic.
Europe
Fact is, that pitch is a disgrace, as are all plastic pitches in serious football. Yes we know the MLS has plenty of them, but in serious football in Europe such surfaces are dire.
And Bajrami is the latest victim taken by one.
Rohl said:
“Nedim is not too good for us, which is hard. We thought after the game it wasn’t too serious but it now looks more serious. At the moment, we have some more injuries which isn’t helpful but we still have a good squad together. It’s important to manage some people at the moment and it’s our job to find the right players for this game. We have a challenge ahead of us. We want to take a good result here but we need to do everything right. It looks like a muscle injury for Nedim. He didn’t feel so bad but the scan wasn’t positive so now we have to wait and check it one more time. It will then be week by week but hopefully it won’t be long.”
Early projections are he might not be available till January at the earliest, muscle injuries are never good. They can take months to heal.
What a damn shame given he’d finally found form.
Of course he had.