George Edmundson finds himself in a predicament at Rangers.
The 23-year-old centre-back enjoyed a promising first season with the Gers following a reported £700,000 move from Oldham Athletic [BBC Sport], turning out 15 times in all competitions.
He did particularly well in Europe, helping secure a precious clean sheet away to Braga in the Round of 32 before scoring in the Last 16 first-leg clash against Bayer Leverkusen at Ibrox.
Coming into the 2020/21 season, his prospects looked strong.
Edmundson played in multiple pre-season fixtures and impressed as part of a solid defensive unit.
Yet, since the competitive action started, he’s been pushed into the background.
With Nikola Katic and Filip Helander out injured, Steven Gerrard opted to bring in reinforcements in the shape of Leon Balogun, who surprisingly started alongside Connor Goldson in the Premiership opener against Aberdeen, just a few days after joining the club.
Balogun was superb at Pittodrie and continued to impress until he sustained an injury of his own against St Johnstone.
By that stage, though, Helander had regained fitness and was chosen ahead of Edmundson to replace the ex-Wigan centre-back.
Since then, Helander and Goldson have looked rock solid at the back, starring alongside new goalkeeper, Jon McLaughlin, to rack up clean sheet after clean sheet.
Rangers are still yet to concede a goal six matches into the season and Edmundson hasn’t seen a minute of action.
At present, he’s the club’s fourth-choice centre-back and he didn’t even make the matchday squad for the game prior to the international break against Hamilton.
Niko Katic is currently out with a serious knee injury but made almost twice as many appearances the ex-Oldham star last season, so it’s fair to assume that when the Croatian eventually returns to fitness, Edmundson will be knocked even further down the pecking order.
Rangers fans certainly took to ‘the fridge’ during his maiden season at Ibrox but although he’s done little wrong, right now, it’s hard to see how he’s going to get playing time.
With the vice-captain and two senior internationals excelling above him, his patience is set to be tested.
