Rangers winger Oscar Cortes is one of a number of Ibrox stars who apparently cannot shake their ‘bad luck’ with injury problems.
The Colombian winger, 20, once again finds himself on the sidelines after missing training ahead of the Europa League clash with Malmö in Sweden.
The RC Lens attacker – who signed an extended loan-to-buy deal with Rangers in the summer – had only just returned to the first team after sustaining an injury on the opening day against Hearts.
Now, Philippe Clement has been explaining Oscar Cortes’ latest injury problem and is praying that this will be the last of the hoo-doo which has brought the transfer increasingly under the microscope.
Oscar Cortes picks up yet another Rangers injury
Oscar Cortes’s Rangers career to date has been blighted by injury problems.
The Gers thought they’d unearthed a gem in the Colombian attacker when they signed Cortes on loan from RC Lens in January.
The French side had paid hometown club FC Millonarios €4.5m (£3.8m) to sign Cortes last summer but the winger had struggled to settle in France.
But only seven games into his Ibrox sojourn was Cortes struck by a season-ending injury, the winger having to go under the knife due to a muscle problem sustained at Rugby Park.
Having worked his way back to full fitness ahead of this season, Rangers felt they had seen enough of Oscar Cortes to agree a new loan with a £4m mandatory purchase option next summer.
Things haven’t gone to plan since.
Injured on the opening day of the season after pulling up v Hearts, Cortes had only just returned to the side in the 1-0 win over Dundee United after the international break.
After news of the winger’s absence from the pre-Malmö Europa League training session began to spread, naturally Clement faced the music.
This time will be the last time hopes Belgian manager Clement, who put this latest injury – sustained during a duel in training – down to pure ‘bad luck’.
“We lost one player with Oscar (Cortes) in the training this week,” Clement told a press conference in Sweden. “So in a tackle he got a bad knock and he will be out for several weeks so that’s a disappointing thing.
“Because he was growing back to his best level and showing the player that he was, or that he is and that he will be in the future.
“The rest of the squad stays the same as last weekend.”
Asked if there was concern over Cortes’ apparent injury-proneness, Clement responded: “No, it’s duels. It’s football, it’s part of football.
“You have lucky moments and you have unlucky moments, this was an unlucky one.
“Also not a crazy tackle but you have duels in football and then things can happen and he has been really unlucky these last couple of months with those things.
“I hope the bad luck for him stops now after this and the rest of his career will be the luck side but it is part of football.”
Rangers have over £17m worth of talent injured
Naturally the decision to agree to such a hefty fee for Oscar Cortes is raising eyebrows, and heartbeats, amongst Rangers fans.
With the Ibrox side on a shoestring budget, the club’s fans have only ever seen brief flashes of Oscar Cortes’s ability with the winger struggling to put a run of matches together.
We sympathise, we really do. With Oscar Cortes and with Philippe Clement.
But whilst Cortes can have all the ability in the world, Rangers fans are growing tired of expensive signings who have next to no availability on matchdays.
Oscar Cortes is not an isolated problem and is part of a wider issue amongst the club’s most expensive signings of the last few seasons.
Rangers signed a £5m deal to bring Ridvan Yilmaz to the club from Besiktas only for the left-back to spend the bulk of his three seasons at the club sidelined.
The Turkish international is once again out with injury.
Joining the young Turk is Welsh international Rabbi Matondo, signed on a £2.5m deal from Schalke 04 on reportedly high wages only to routinely pick up injury problems.
Matondo isn’t even in Rangers’ Europa League squad after picking up yet another injury in the Old Firm defeat to Celtic.
And the problems don’t end there either.
Rangers paid £6m to bring Brazilian striker Danilo to Ibrox only for the hitman to suffer three major injuries since moving to Glasgow
First a facial fracture, then a cruciate injury, Danilo is now out for the foreseeable with a medial ligament injury which also sees the Brazilian left out of this season’s Europa League campaign.
Between these four players, that’s over £17m worth of talent which is also picking up a wage whilst propping up the medical room.
It’s also not including recently returned £800k midfielder Nicolas Raskin, another for whom injuries have been routine and disruptive.
Philippe Clement promised change in this department, but with the club’s recent injury record yet to relent, when will the club’s transfer policy come under the spotlight?
Rangers cannot expect to be challenging at the top end of the Scottish Premiership or in the Europa League so long as our most expensive signings are out injured or taking their time to come back from long-term problems.
Clement might put it down to ‘bad luck’ but for frustrated Rangers fans it’s beginning to sound like a bad excuse.
