Steven Gerrard has delivered a double Rangers Europa League player update via the club’s website.
The Gers take on St Joseph’s at Ibrox on Thursday evening in the second leg of their first-round qualifying tie.
Steven Gerrard’s men take a four-goal lead into the fixture courtesy of a strong performance last week in Gibraltar.
Therefore, the manager is expected to make changes to his side.
Speaking to Rangers.co.uk ahead of the game, Gerrard provided availability updates on two players who are yet to feature during the pre-season schedule – Jon Flanagan and Scott Arfield.
“Jon Flanagan is progressing really well; he is probably ahead of schedule. I think the plan if he continues to progress is that he will be back in full training in just over a week.
“So we will try and get some game time to Jon in a couple of weeks and hopefully he will be ready for the start of the season from a domestic point of view.
“Scott Arfield is only probably on day five or six of pre-season, so he is one we will integrate a little bit slower because we want to be careful with Scott, we want him to be available for hopefully what is going to be a 60 games season.
“It’s important the fans understand that Scott is three weeks behind the team.”
Verdict
It looks unlikely that either player will feature against St Joseph’s.
As we can see, Jon Flanagan is definitely out as he continues his recovery from a hernia operation. This means Borna Barisic will probably keep his spot at left-back. The Croatian international impressed Bears during the first leg, during which he scored a free-kick.
As for Scott Arfield, the manager didn’t completely rule him out. Based on these comments he almost certainly won’t start the game. However, despite missing the first leg after international duty, he was still named in the initial Europa League squad.
There’s still a chance he could be introduced as a second-half substitute in order to get some minutes in the legs. For now, though, it’s clear Gerrard’s priority is to protect a key asset.
