Rangers brought back Leon Balogun the club in the summer, looking for senior option to provide cover, however, all the should have done was offer Filip Helander another contract.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing but the 30-year old Swede has barely missed a beat this season for Odense and since returning for his national side, even going as far as to hint at a possible reunion in Glasgow.
Things didn’t quite go to plan for the former Rangers defender against Azerbaijan this week though with Filip Helander coming in for some stinging criticism from Fotbollskanalen.
Rangers injury nightmare for Filip Helander
There’s never been any doubts about the severity or authenticity of Helander’s injury issues at Rangers.
He saw specialists to try and fix what Steven Gerrard described as a rare and unique problem.
With that type of issue, the rehabilitation is never straight forward and so it proved for the towering stopper.
One aborted comeback led to a new conservative approach by the Rangers medical team only for Filip Helander having to, reluctantly, go back under the knife.
He ran out of time at Ibrox to earn a new contract, however, this season, he has played almost every minute.
Former Rangers ace Filip Helander has a hard night at the office
At Rangers, Filip Helander quickly became a fans’ favourite after his reported £3.5m move and our most dependable defender, not that this helped his cause against Azerbaijan:
“A heavy night for the centre-back. Tried to set Azerbaijan offside and therefore lost goal scorer Dadasov at 2-0,” reported Fotballskanalen in their match ratings.
Helander lost just one league game in his time at Rangers and only one Old Firm derby, the 2019 league cup final when he had to go off with the foot injury that started his long-term problems.
It wasn’t very often in a Light Blues shirt, but he did have the occasional stinker in him too though.
The 3-3 Europa League game away to Benfica springs to mind but, in fairness, he was up against a rampant Darwin Nunez.
He had an off night this week, although given how little he has played in the last two years, I’d reckon that Big Fil didn’t lose any sleep and will bounce back in no time at all.
