Rangers have been hit by yet another colossal injury crisis, as sadly predicted by Ibrox Noise. There were already the issues surrounding Youssef Chermiti, Lawrence Shankland, Tuur Rommens and Kosta Nedeljković. And the addition of the latest chaos surrounding Japanese signing Daisuke Yokota surgery has compounded the situation considerably.
Yokota requires surgery
After fans being told by Derek McInnes that Yokota would miss Wednesday night due to a groin issue, Ibrox Noise had a distinct inkling that more was to come. And indeed, post match, it was confirmed that Yokota joined Lawrence Shankland in London for significant surgery on said injury. Consequently, Yokota will now miss the bulk of the rest of the year.
Shankland has been confirmed as being out now for four months minimum. This is three months for pure recovery, plus initial testing/surgery that requires one month. Add new signing Yokota to this, whose prognosis is barely any better, and Rangers have essentially lost both till 2027. It is a pretty dire state for things.
Rangers’ injury problems mount
Of course, recoveries can be quicker than initially projected. But they can also, as is Rangers’ case and is most often likely, be considerably longer. Rangers are now missing around five, maybe six players going into the crucial winter break period and it is far from ideal.
Naturally, Badredine Bouanani’s debut was reasonably promising against St Mirren, which we will go into in more detail. Ergo, the loss of Yokota may not be as big a potential blow, given, in all fairness, his lack of minutes in the last few weeks anyway. But you don’t want to lose your players, especially new summer signings, and Rangers have lost a boatload already.
Another familiar Rangers crisis
We do not know what’s going on at medical when it comes to Rangers, but we do know that every single year these injury crises happen, guaranteed. Daisuke Yokota surgery is just the latest victim of this and who knows who the next name to crop up is going to be?
Because there will be one or two more as well. Que sera.