Ahead of Rangers’ Scottish Premiership clash against Kilmarnock, Steven Gerrard announced that Jamie Murphy had suffered an injury setback.
As captured by the Rangers YouTube account, the manager explained that it was a ‘niggle’ that would set him back ‘a few days’, so it’s nothing too serious.
However, the timing of this issue flaring up couldn’t have been worse.
The winger enjoyed a successful loan spell with the club during the second half of the 2017/18 season, making 16 starts and scoring four times in the league. Yet, since he’s joined the club on a permanent basis, he’s endured a rotten run of luck.
Last season, a serious knee injury limited him to just eight competitive appearances. After sustaining the ligament damage at Rugby Park in August, he spent the rest of the campaign watching from the sidelines. Frustratingly, successful rehab got him back into contention just as the fixtures came to an end.
When pre-season came around, he was raring to go. The fans were delighted to see him back on the training ground, too.
Rangers winger struck by untimely niggle
He played a lot of minutes for both the senior side and development XI’s across June and July in order to get himself ready to go for the season opener. All that hard work, only to pick up a minor muscle injury on the eve of the season.
The problem left him out of contention for the Killie game and for the Europa League Qualifying clash against Midtjylland. Meanwhile, new signings like Jordan Jones are getting a head start on him.
Perhaps even more concerningly, another left-winger, in Brandon Barker, looks to be on his way to Ibrox.
With Jake Hastie also an option on the left side, Murphy will face big competition in the months ahead. Either that, or he’ll be forced out of the club altogether.
That would be a real shame for the Glasgow born 29-year-old. Last month, he spoke at length about his desire to contribute to a trophy-winning Rangers team [Football Scotland], and there would be a sense of injustice if misfortune were to curtail his Ibrox stint.
