Philippe Clement has challenged his Rangers squad to cope without James Tavernier and Jack Butland against Celtic.
Tavernier was ruled out for Gers earlier this week with an injury.
And Butland was sidelined in the derby with “internal bleeding” from Hogmanay when he was rushed to hospital.
It came as two significant blows for the Ibrox outfit before what is a massive clash in the grand scheme of things for the Scottish Premiership.
Clement knows how much of a miss both “leaders” will be with Liam Kelly deputising for Butland and the back four being shuffled around to accommodate Tav’s issue.
James Tavernier and Jack Butland are both injured for Celtic clash
And the manager has demanded the rest of his squad step up in their absence to get the best result possible at Ibrox and ensure a win in this fixture for the first time in far too long.
“Yes, of course,” said Clement when asked about other players stepping up.
“In that way, it’s a new journey also with this new group of players.
“Some guys are taking really good steps in that way.
“Nico Raskin is really growing in that role more and more the last couple of months, and you need several leaders on the pitch of course to get good games and to play at the level that Rangers want to play.
Clement has made six changes to Rangers XI vs Celtic
“Of course you miss two leaders but I’m expecting from Liam Kelly the same. He’s been doing that in the dressing room the last couple of months, so he will do that on the pitch also.”
Clement named his starting XI earlier this afternoon for the game and there were one or two interesting changes.
Six were made in total from the team which drew with Motherwell, most notably with Vaclav Cerny returning despite recent sport science questions.
Seven-goal hero Hamza Igamane also plays from the start in the powderkeg derby.
