Rangers forward Kemar Roofe simply must remain injury-free if the Ibrox side are to successfully defend their Scottish Premiership title.
The Jamaica international came off the bench against Hibs and scored arguably the club’s most important goal of the season so far to secure a 1-0 victory and a massive three points in the title race.
Roofe, who was signed by Steven Gerrard in the summer of 2020 from Belgian side R.S.C Anderlecht, has suffered a few injuries during his time at the club which have prevented him from building momentum.
When he is fit, however, the club has a proven matchwinner with an eye for the spectacular in their midst, as his goal against Standard Liege in the Europa League last season will testify.
The wonderful strike will go down as one of the club’s all-time great goals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzzNirf0l3E
For someone who has been out of the team for extended periods of time, the 28-year-old has scored an excellent 28 goals in 55 appearances for the Ibrox side.
That works out at almost one goal every two games and although the club has Alfredo Morelos and Fashion Sakala available to contribute heavily to the goal tally, Roofe remains key in the Premiership title race.
Van Bronckhorst’s challenge is to manage the forward’s playing time in a way that gives him the best chance of staying fit for the rest of the season.
International duty certainly won’t help that quest, with the player suffering his most recent injury whilst he was featuring for Jamaica against El Salvador in November.
With the Reggae Boyz playing vital World Cup qualifiers in January, February, and March next year, everyone at Rangers will be praying he comes through unscathed so he can be a key figure at the business end of the season.
