One of Philippe Clement’s biggest tasks since taking over as Rangers boss has been trying to sort out the injury crisis that seems to have gripped the club.
The manager has made changes behind the scenes and injury prone players have been moved on, however, the early stages of the season has seen fans question if things are working.
Studies have shown that early season sees a spike in injuries as players adapt to an increased intensity and Rangers current list isn’t as bad as is being made out with two key players hopefully back soon.
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Injured duo could be set for timely Rangers return
Nicolas Raskin was the victim of a horror tackle in pre-season against Ajax whilst Oscar Cortes tripped and fell awkwardly on his knee on matchday one against Hearts – nothing either player or Clement could have done about this.
Leon Balogun and Scott Wright are only minor issues that every club must contend with, and Ridvan Yilmaz has suffered a repeat of an injury that has seen him miss long periods of action in the past.
There is little a manager can do about injury prone players, other than move them on.
The good news is, all but Ridvan should be back in the squad soon with Jefte proving that there is nothing to worry about at left-back, for now.
Cortes was injured on the 4th of August with Philippe Clement explaining how long Rangers would be without the Colombian winger:
“He had a scan and he will be out for around four or five weeks. It was a really unlucky fall in the duel, and his knee was twisted.
“So, yeah, it’s an unlucky injury, nothing to do with load or whatever, just an unlucky collision with the player.
“Of course it’s a hard blow for him, for the team, because he was coming back and he’s going to become an important player for the future of the club. He has a lot of quality, he showed that last season, he was hungry to come back, he was on his way back, he was not at his best yet, but he showed already promising things again.
And it was a similar story for Nicolas Raskin who was stretchered off against Ajax on the 13th of July:
“Raskin will be out for five to six weeks. I expected it to be worse if I saw him straight after the game but still it is a really bad injury, bad timing also because we are going to miss him in the beginning of the season that is clear.”
Rangers won’t know injury adaptations for some time
Both players, if Rangers are lucky, should be in full training soon and might even make the squad for the first Old Firm derby of the season.
Only at the end of the season will Rangers truly know if the changes that have been made have had an impact on player availability.
As shown with the current list though, each case must be looked at individually and on their own merits because presently, only Ridvan’s issue might have been prevented, however, given his history, it might only have been a matter of time.
Time isn’t on the side of Raskin and Cortes but they would give a frustrated fan base a massive lift if their names are seen in a matchday squad once again.
