In a possible boost for Rangers, Livingston may be without a key man for Wednesday night’s League Cup quarter-final at Ibrox.
Former Rangers player Andrew Shinnie returned to Scottish football in July after several years in the EFL, signing a two-year deal at the Tony Macaroni Arena.
Since then, he’s made seven appearances across all competitions and on Sunday, while playing as a centre-forward, he scored the only goal of the game in a win over Celtic.
However, David Martindale is concerned about the 32-year-old’s workload and has hinted that he could leave him out of the Ibrox clash due to concerns about his potential to pick up an injury.
“I have got to look after Shinnie,” said the Livi boss [PA]. “I spoke to Shinnie in the group stage and it was a similar situation and I asked him if he wanted me to pull him out of the squad. He said, ‘No, I want to start, I want to get as many minutes under my belt’, and then he tweaked his groin.”
“So, it will be a conversation I have with the player and see how he feels.
“We have another massive game coming against Hearts at Tynecastle on Saturday, so we need to be very clever in how we approach both games.”
Clearly, it would be a boost for Rangers if Shinnie, one of Livi’s most technically gifted and versatile players, didn’t feature at Ibrox.
He’ll be full of confidence after his match-winning contribution against the Hoops and no doubt keen to impress against the club at which he began his professional career.
Yet, it looks like the Premiership is the priority for the West Lothian outfit and so he may only have a watching brief from the stands before returning to the starting XI against Hearts at the weekend.
Meanwhile, an exciting 24-year-old could come into the Rangers team for the quarter-final clash.
