Scotch and Wry, Abbott and Costello, Jack and Victor, Rangers and injury problems.
Dynamic duos where one is scarcely mentioned without the other.
Rangers’ problems in their medical department have been subject to a deep-rooted summer overhaul and yet they persist with the Gers currently without several first-team stars.
Really since the turn of 2022, Rangers have had all manner of injury problems, the blame for which lies across a number of departments, from the medical team to the club’s much-maligned recent recruitment.
But for those young Rangers fans who believe that injury issues at Ibrox are a modern problem, step forward Dragan Mladenovic.
Dragan Mladenovic’s Rangers injury woe
Serbian midfielder Dragan Mladenovic is not a name many Rangers fans will remember for his contribution on the pitch.
But the Serbian star – who cost the Gers £1m in 2004 – is synonymous with injury problems that meant he could never bring his stand-out Red Star qualities to Alex McLeish’s team.
Four matches into his Rangers career, Mladenovic was stretchered off and never recovered to have any impact on the club’s historic Helicopter Sunday celebrations.
Eventually loaned out to Real Sociedad, Mladenovic has been speaking to the Rangers Review about his time in Glasgow, which despite his struggles the Serb remembers fondly.
“The Rangers is one of the biggest clubs in the whole of Europe, in the whole world, especially with the fans and everything,” said Mladenovic.
“You know, it’s a privilege to play there, but I don’t have luck. I often get injured, and maybe there was not so much patience in that time, Rangers need the results.
“And, you know, when you put that together, it was a hard time for me, but also the great experience for me, and to be a part of that team, of that club, it’s appreciated.
“It was the last training session in Austria in the pre-season, and I had a problem with the hamstring.
“It was two months in that time, and when I come on the pitch, after those two months, I get a knee injury. We played that game, and I got injured, and again it was two months.
“The problems, what I have with injuries in that time, it’s a big pressure.
“Of course, I’m used to it, playing for Red Star, it’s the same pressure as here, but I understand that.
“We need the title, and they don’t have the time for the injured players. Not only for me, but a lot of injured players in that time, and the club is just buying a new one, a new one.”
Rangers injury crosses generations and Ibrox teams
Injuries really have plagued Rangers in recent seasons, to the point the club played the Europa League Final of 2022 without a recognised striker.
Going back to the era of Filip Helander, Ryan Jack, and Kemar Roofe, there were several in the Rangers collective who just did not contribute enough because of medical problems.
The problems had a huge impact on the managerial career of Giovanni van Bronckhorst too, who was sacked amid a run of terrible injury issues across his squad.
Even now, the likes of Tom Lawrence, Ridvan Yilmaz and Rabbi Matondo, expensive players on high wages, have played two full seasons in Glasgow defined by injury problems.
It led to Philippe Clement overhauling the club’s medical department in the summer, even if the residual and endemic problems will take some time to undo.
With the latest injury to Oscar Cortes, Rangers have over £17m worth of talent sidelined and for a club on a stretched budget, it is quite simply not good enough.
Some often wonder if the issues run deeper than medical departments, support staff, facilities or even injury-plagued players.
With the problems so consistent, across generations of following Rangers there are those who wonder if the Gers might be the victims of some of kind of strange footballing hoodoo.
Dragan Mladenovic’s short-lived Ibrox is evidence to the more superstitious amongst the Ibrox legions that the club’s medical department has long-been cursed.
