With a host of first-team players already suffering with injury issues ahead of the potential Scottish Premiership title-decider with Old Firm rivals Celtic on April 7, Rangers really could have done without picking up yet another fitness blow during the international break.
Philippe Clement is already without two of his greatest goal threats in Abdallah Sima and Danilo. Oscar Cortes, so impressive since his January arrival from Lens, is also stuck on the treatment table. Ditto the luckless Kieran Dowell, and a man in Ryan Jack who’s vast experience could have come in very handy in the midst of a gruelling title battle.
Clement, then, will understandably be praying that the problem which forced Ridvan Yilmaz out of Turkey’s 1-0 defeat to Hungary on Friday night is not has serious as first feared. Yilmaz, with just 27 minutes on the clock, limped off, clutching the muscle on his upper leg.
So Rangers supporters will have been waiting with baited breath ahead of Vincenzo Montella’s post-match press conference, the former Roma, Fulham and Italy striker providing an update on Yilmaz’s fitness.
Rangers ace subbed off with injury
Further examinations will be required, Montella says, before the true extent of Yilmaz’s problem becomes clear, the manager refusing to rule out an early return to ahead of next week’s friendly with Austria.
“I will think about this issue,” Montella says, via the Daily Record.
“We need to evaluate the physical condition of our football players. I also have a plan in my mind for young players to gain experience in such matches. I will make my decisions after making a good evaluation (of Yilmaz).”
Celtic clash looms
No news, perhaps, is good news.
Surely, if Yilmaz was set for an extended period on the sidelines, that would have become apparent almost immediately. That Montella is not yet ruling Yilmaz out of Tuesday’s clash with Austria is, maybe, an indication that the left-back’s early removal was merely precautionary.
Yilmaz, so heavily linked with a departure from Rangers during the winter window, has been one of Clement’s most-improved players since the turn of the year. So much so that the long-serving Borna Barisic has been relegated to second choice, Yilmaz featuring in 13 successive Premiership matches and starting ten of them.
