Rangers star Ryan Jack missed training on Wednesday as fears grow regarding his availability for the Europa League clash against Benfica.
Jack has been in outstanding form for both club and country recently, helping the Gers to extend their lead at top of the Premiership table and Scotland to book a spot at the European Championships.
However, he picked up a knock during Sunday’s 4-0 win over Aberdeen and Steven Gerrard has declared him a doubt for the crunch upcoming Group D clash.
The manager asserted that the 28-year-old’s fitness would be assessed on Wednesday but his absence from all training content published later in the day will increase concerns for supporters.
The club released a RangersTV training video in the afternoon and a training gallery in the evening but the midfielder can’t be spotted in either.
Jack has had a heavy workload recently, playing 210 minutes for Scotland and travelling thousands of miles during the recent block of international fixtures, before putting in 56 minutes of work against the Dons at the weekend.
Therefore, despite the importance of this European fixture, he shouldn’t be risked if there’s even the slightest lingering concern about a niggle.
If he can stay fit, he will be a key player across the remainder of the season, but Rangers have shown that they can still pull off big victories without him in the starting XI.
When Celtic were comfortably downed at Parkhead last month, Jack watched the majority of the game from the bench as Steven Davis, Glen Kamara and Scott Arfield dominated the middle of the park, and those three could be deployed together once again against Benfica.
Ahead of the game, check out our Predicted XI as well as our Preview Video over on the Rangers News YouTube channel.
