Rangers fan fears surrounding striker Kemar Roofe have been realised as the latest reports claim the player is carrying an unspecified injury and will miss pre-season.
The Gers sorely missed the striker at the tail end of last season as his routine injury issues hampered the club’s Europa League push and the club had to play without a recognised striker in the Final.
Whilst Kemar Roofe came off the bench in the match, his lack of availability for this vital game is symbolic of a bit-part Rangers career to date where the striker has impressed but has far too often been on the sidelines.
Roofe’s injury absences weren’t all to blame of course; an admittedly rare season-ending injury to Alfredo Morelos had a devastating impact whilst the club’s directorate can be criticised for failing to effectively fill the third striking berth by recalling Swiss international Cedric Itten.
But as the club head into the new season worried Rangers fans had pointed to Kemar Roofe being missing from the club’s official training snaps in Portugal.
Major doubts surround fitness of Rangers striker Kemar Roofe
Whilst nothing had been confirmed up to this point, this naturally had rumours spreading surrounding an injury and this has since been confirmed by the latest reports.
The Scottish Sun have claimed the striker had completely missed the club’s pre-season Algarve training camp – a monumental fitness blow at the beginning of the campaign – with the striker also a doubt for the Premiership opener with Livingston.
Whilst Kemar Roofe is undoubtedly a popular player at Rangers, the repeated injury problems which have plagued his time in Glasgow have fans asking about his suitability for the club.
Signed for a reported £3.5m in 2020, and surely amongst the club’s highest earners, to have such a valuable area of the squad taken up by someone whose fitness is unreliable is a major gamble.
This has already proven to be the case several times in Roofe’s Rangers career and the Ibrox club are now in a major dilemma with the forward.
If an English Championship club want to take a punt on the forward, their budgets perhaps more primed to carry injury-prone players, it would be hard to argue against accepting it.
It’s not always nice to think about but the reality is if Rangers are not being served by high-earners such as Kemar Roofe or Filip Helander – two players in particular who spend more time on the treatment table than pitch – then they need to seriously consider getting them off the wage bill.
In total, Kemar Roofe has made 74 appearances across two campaigns with Rangers, netting an impressive 34 times.
Rangers will be hoping that these issues of squad depth don’t arise again next season after the club’s latest signing joined up with his new teammates.
