It’s fair to say Ryan Jack’s Scotland career has clashed with his Rangers ambitions over the years.
Whilst no-one can begrudge the ex-Aberdeen captain for wanting to be successful with his country, competing on both fronts has impacted the rehabilitation of troublesome calf problems.
After eight years with Rangers, Ryan Jack was one of five players released at the end of their contracts this week.
But the player’s latest appearance for Scotland will turn heads amongst the Rangers support after comments Steve Clarke made about the player’s fitness.
Jack stakes Scotland claim
Ryan Jack received something of a shock call-up to Scotland’s preliminary Euro 2024 squad.
The decision came before Rangers announced that the 32-year-old’s contract at Ibrox would not be renewed this summer.
This comes after years of frustrating injury problems for the popular midfielder, whose development under Steven Gerrard won him a place in the Scotland set-up.
But amid club v country feuds, both Rangers and Scotland have suffered without the influence of Ryan Jack who offers something very different to both teams.
Now, despite spending the majority of the season in rehabilitation, Rangers fans will note Jack coming off the bench for Scotland in the 2-0 win over Gibraltar.
The midfielder replaced Billy Gilmour in the 73rd minute of the match to send a signal about his intentions regarding a plane ticket to Germany.
Rangers injury question lingers over midfielder
Whilst no-one will begrudge Ryan Jack getting minutes for Scotland, the situation raises some serious questions about Rangers’ handling of injuries in their first-team last season.
It comes after Scotland manager Steve Clarke claimed the midfielder was fully fit in the final few weeks of the campaign.
“Ryan’s been an important part of the squad in my time as head coach,” Clarke told the press upon unveiling his Euro 2024 squad in late May.
“He missed the last Euros. He hasn’t had the best end to the season for Rangers. But he’s been fit the past two or three weeks.
“He deserves to be there. He’s a midfield player that’s a little bit different.”
Injuries have decimated the Rangers squad for the last two campaigns and the conditioning, athleticism and robustness of the players has not been at the elite level required.
Simply put, we do not have enough players capable of surviving the rigours of a competitive season at Ibrox without breaking down.
Ryan Jack has faced issues ever since around 2018 and Rangers have been unable to get the midfielder available consistently enough to have a tangible impact on the team.
Alongside fellow crock Kemar Roofe, the Scotland star quite simply had to be released.
But given our desperate situation with injuries this season, if Ryan Jack was deemed fit by Scotland, then why was he not deemed fit by Rangers?
Jack made 22 appearances for Rangers last season (12 of which were starts) and didn’t kick a domestic ball for the club after playing 70 minutes v Ayr in the Scottish Cup in February.
In fact, Jack’s last Rangers appearance came in the 2-2 draw with Benfica in Portugal a few days later, the Scotland midfielder coming off the bench to play 13 minutes.
The Scotland appearance v Gibraltar represents the Jack’s first professional minutes in almost four months.
Given our complete and utter collapse in the final few weeks of the season, we’ve got every right to ask why such an influential player had to sit by and watch.
