Rangers injury list is one that doesn’t need any extra interference so, when Cyriel Dessers was out on stand-by to join Nigeria, Philippe Clement would have been sweating.
Terem Moffi was the player who the Super Eagles turned to first but they had to wait for Nice to give the green light.
It’s an interesting clause that sees clubs given the power due to additional call-ups being made once the official squads have been named, a loophole that Rangers could have used for Cyriel Dessers after he was put on stand-by.
Rangers can count on Cyriel Dessers for title charge
Countries are allowed to call up new players up to 24 hours before their first fixture of the tournament so, Nigeria would have to get really unlucky for Dessers to be getting a phone call now.
Nice have played hard ball over Moffi, and have demanded that they have their striker available to face Rennes this weekend.
What this means is that he will miss the Super Eagles opener against Equatorial Guinea and the chance to play alongside former Gers stars Calvin Bassey and Joe Aribo.
Rangers will now, barring any more injuries on top of Danilo and Kemar Roofe, at least be able to rely on Fabio Silva and Cyriel Dessers after the winter break.
The £4.5m summer signing has been hit and miss to say the least since arriving from Serie A and he will be hoping that there are more of the match winning performances than the ones where great opportunities are passed up.
At his best, he could be the striker to replace Alfredo Morelos, however, at his worst – as we saw at Parkhead – he is almost a man down.
It would still be a surprise if manager Philippe Clement doesn’t bring another forward to Ibrox this month but there aren’t many names getting bandied about.
The big Belgian keeps his cards a lot closer to his chest than his predecessor in the Ibrox hot seat, hopefully he has more success spotting a striker too.
