Injury woes have been the bugbear of Philippe Clement ever since he walked in the door at Rangers.
In fact, the poor conditioning of the Ibrox squad has proven costly for the Belgian’s predecessors too, with injuries badly interrupting the spells of Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Michael Beale.
The state of Rangers’ medical department was also laid bare at the weekend as a desperately short Ibrox team crumbled to a third Old Firm league defeat of the season.
It’s desperate stuff and we really are sick and tired of it.
Ahead of Tuesday night’s palpably toxic visit of Dundee, Philippe Clement has had plenty to say about Rangers’ injury issues and the frustration is clear for all to see.
Clement confirms five fresh injury problems
Philippe Clement has confirmed that there will be no fewer than 11 first-team stars missing for the visit of Dundee this week.
This includes three centre-back options – you will recall Van Bronckhorst suffering in this department also – whilst the club’s midfield and forward options are frighteningly limited.
At the top end of the park, Rangers are also desperately short and the entire thing is enough to drive you round the bend at Edmiston Drive.
“I had to write it down (the 11 players who are missing) because it was too much to keep it in mind,” said Clement.
“John Souttar will not be available, Connor Goldson not, Leon Balogun not, Dujon Sterling not, John Lundstram not because of suspension, Tom Lawrence not, Oscar Cortes not, Rabbi Matondo not, Abdallah Sima not, Danilo not, and Bailey Rice not.”
That means Rangers have lost John Souttar, Leon Balogun, Dujon Sterling, John Lundstram, and Tom Lawrence from the Old Firm defeat to Celtic.
No fewer than five players.
When asked if the players were ruled out of the Scottish Cup Final on the 25th of May, Clement responded: “I don’t think so and I hope next week to recover a few.
“But of course if players have been out for a long time I don’t expect miracles also that suddenly they can play 90 minutes
“But there will be hopefully more players available yes.”
Rangers manager demands medical improvement
In a quite remarkable press conference, Philippe Clement spent the bulk of it talking about two things.
Recruitment was front at centre of the discussion, but the entire post-Old Firm debriefing was dominated by discussions over injuries.
Clement has been clear that things have got to change in the Ibrox medical department moving forward almost ever since he took the job at Ibrox.
But the Belgian was left picking through the bones of his decimated squad as the stood up to the media following the bitterly disappointing defeat.
Here’s what a visibly frustrated Clement had to say.
“If we are both fully fit, no,” said Clement when asked if there was ‘much difference’ between Rangers and Celtic.
“And that’s also in the points even with two losses and a draw. We have one point more won in the six months.
“So no, there’s not a big gap but we need to prove that on the pitch in the results against each other and in the other games also because it’s not only against each other.
“We need to grab those moments. That’s part of top football. If you score the first goal you have another scenario, another dynamic of the game.
“For sure in this game it would’ve been different. We had this chance also to do that, we had two good ones to score the first goal but you need to take that moment and that’s our responsibility to do.”
Later adding: “Every team in the world, if you have nine players who are possible starting XI players are not available, for every team in the world it’s difficult.
“I hear the same things if one or two players of the Celtic team were missing during the season, that it was such a massive thing that they were back.
“We had nine, we have tomorrow eleven, so that’s for me a major thing that we need change towards next season, that these things don’t happen.
“But it’s the foundation of the house that we need to make stronger.”
When asked if the injuries were the difference between winning the league and not, Clement responded: “No, there will be other things also, so it’s too easy to only put it there.
“It’s that moment not looking back where we lost something towards somebody else it’s looking back at how can we make things better here.
“And it’s going to be a turnaround in the squad, that’s clear also, with all the contract situations and everything.
“So we’re going to work hard on that, we’re working hard on that already for months.
“I see that the recruitment team are really busy finding the good profiles for next season but now this moment it’s for me important for these last three games and not to only be busy with next season, it’s about now, it’s about tomorrow.
“OK we miss the eleven players, that’s true, but we need to now make the best with all the players who are available.
“Several guys have been working really hard the last couple of months to get chances to play.
“I could not give because the others have done really well, now is there chance to show it.”
When asked about recruitment, Clement once again snapped back at the medical department: “It’s not only in recruitment, in other departments we need to also make good decisions.
“Because we cannot have so many injuries so we need to rebuild also some things there I think.
“There are several things that need to change but these are things that I prefer to keep in the building and make it better in the building.”
When asked what is the biggest lesson he’d take from this season, Clement cryptically added: “For sure the injury story, maybe it was better not to wait until the end of the season to make decisions around that.
“But you give also chances to people.”
Changes are certainly in the offing with Clement’s presser offering up more questions than answers when it comes to the conditioning of the squad.
