Insult has been added to injury in the wake of Rangers’ 2-1 defeat to Hearts with the news that influential midfielder Ryan Jack has suffered a calf knock at Tynecastle.
The Ibrox midfielder was amongst a raft of poor first-half performers for Rangers in the Tynecastle defeat and there was confusion over why the player was hooked at half time.
Despite Jack being on a yellow card and struggling with the intensity of the match, Rangers manager Steven Gerrard revealed it was injury which forced him off.
“We were forced into a change with Ryan Jack, he’s got a calf problem,” explained Gerrard, as he touched on his halftime substitutions [Rangers].
“Jon was on a yellow card so we wanted to change it there.
“At half time we thought ‘okay, we haven’t played great but there’s another 45 let’s see if we can try and at least be recognisable’.
“We were for a minute and a half scored a great goal and then fell into the trap of getting outfought.
“We were outfought, we were outbattled and we had five, six, seven or eight passengers
“It’s the first time over the course of a 90 minutes I’ve been shocked by a performance by us.”
Steven Gerrard’s side has come under heavy fire from the Rangers support for their tepid performance at Tynecastle.
The club’s supporters have looked to call out the players’ mentality and given the number of times this Ibrox side have failed to stand up and be counted at the crunch, it’s no surprise.
There’s a lot of frustration in the camp in the minute but giving up that title momentum and swinging it back towards Celtic so soon after gaining it is a considerable blow.
Losing Rangers midfielder Ryan Jack to injury for the upcoming matches could be a big one too.
