Rangers face some serious injury problems as deputy right-back Nathan Patterson is revealed to be a doubt for the weekend’s Old Firm clash with Celtic.
The talented teenage full-back has impressed since coming into the side following an injury to captain James Tavernier with the Ibrox skipper still expected to miss the weekend’s clash.
Patterson, 19, would then be expected to start the game before he is hauled before a disciplinary panel for his role in that lockdown breaching party last month.
However, Rangers boss Steven Gerrard revealed the youngster could be ruled out of the clash against Celtic due to a kick from the match against Slavia Prague as he challenged his players to rise to the occasion.
“I don’t think you should have to get players up for an Old Firm – that should be in your DNA,” said Gerrard [Rangers].
“It’s a huge fixture, I think that goes without saying.
“On the back of the disappointment of going out of Europe we want to try and bounce back with a strong performance and a positive result.
“We’ll be ready come kick-off.
“In terms of the injury news we’ve come out of last night’s game pretty well, Nathan Patterson had to be removed because he had quite a severe kick in the calf area that we’re assessing this morning.
“So I’d say he’s probably the only real big doubt, everyone else has come through pretty fine.
“We haven’t really got much preparation time to think about this fixture but that’s not an excuse, that’s how it is.
“We’re quite used to this schedule from bouncing game to game and come kick-off we’ll be ready and prepared and have a game plan that hopefully will be good enough on the day.”
Leon Balogun has deputised in the position in the absence of both players previously and could be called upon to do so again.
Filip Helander and Jack Simpson would also still be available to partner Connor Goldson as things stand, so the club is well-stocked in this situation.
But having a natural right-back provides an important balance to the team with Barisic down the left and Rangers are significantly less potent firstly without their captain, but also without their back-up.
Whilst Patterson got off with a kick in a physical encounter, just think about the Slavia Prague goalkeeper who’s been left in tatters in the aftermath of the match.
