Rangers have had a serious problem with injuries for the past few seasons with Philippe Clement determined to put things right this season.
The squad looks better in terms of health with only Ridvan Yilmaz and Rabbi Matondo out for any prolonged period of time, but it is the absence of Danilo that has raised a few questions.
The manager still has a tough job in his hands with players who are injury prone unlikely to have a sudden physiological metamorphosis, however; the Brazilian striker’s need to go under the knife is another that he could have done little about.
Danilo absence is no Rangers conspiracy
Barry Ferguson, speaking on the Go Radio Football Show, isn’t so sure that the 25-year old’s prognosis is as good as is being made out by Rangers:
“He is not in the Europa League squad for the games, that tells me that he is going to be out for longer than a month.
“I don’t know exactly what the injury is, it might be a reoccurrence of the knee injury that he suffered because it was a serious knee injury.
“That is disappointing because a lot of the fans are quite excited because it has been a bit of stop start to his Rangers career when he has come in.
“He has looked really good before he actually got that injury. Yes it is a blow because they are very light up top, very light.”
Clement has responsibility to balance Rangers striker issue
Philippe Clement couldn’t have done much more to gradually reintroduce Danilo back into competitive action.
The Gers boss was keen to avoid seeing the £6m signing miss anymore time on the sidelines.
Given the need for a clean up, it makes sense for Danilo not to be in the Europa League squad.
He won’t be expected to play twice a week and can instead focus on recovery and building fitness between games.
Hamza Igamane looked sharp at Parkhead and will soon be expected to start games in rotation with Cyriel Dessers.
There is no need for Dessers to play every game.
Danilo isn’t back at square one, he suffered a set back but his match fitness was at the stage where he was ready to start more games.
His recovery shouldn’t be a long one.
What will be an issue is if Clement continues to play Dessers instead of Danilo and starts him in midweek too for the Europa League.
A lot of the current problems aren’t down to him, however, this one is firmly under his control.
