Dujon Sterling, hobbling off at Easter Road prematurely clutching his hamstring, made a walk down the tunnel that his replacement, Ross McCausland, would follow in the second half. Although Rabbi Matondo’s return to the squad offered some semblance of depth to the wings pre-match, come full-time the Ibrox side had, quite literally, taken one step forward and another two back on the injury front. “We will examine them in the next two days to see what is going on,” Clement said on the pair speaking post-match.“ It is dangerous for me to say it is serious or it is not serious if it is not the truth.” This is nothing new. However, the injury situation does not appear to be relenting amid an unforgiving schedule with a squad, as Clement would later reveal, not ready for such a frequency of matches. This was the manager’s most honest assessment of reasons behind the injury crisis to date – which has specifically impacted attacking options.
Two weeks ago came the news of Oscar Cortes’ freak, and likely season-ending, muscle injury to curtail an exciting start in Scotland. Before that, Todd Cantwell’s form of the season was stopped by knocks at St Johnstone. In January, news emerged from the Senegal camp that Abdallah Sima would require thigh surgery. In December, a clash of knees across the city at Tynecastle all but ended Danilo’s campaign. At Easter Road last night, with Clement picking the same consecutive starting 11 for the first time, a tired set of legs earned a 2-0 victory over Hibs to reach the Scottish Cup semi-finals, just hours on from that taxing 2-2 Europa League draw with Benfica. Clement, who has made a habit of picking unpredictable teams to rotate and retain freshness, perhaps didn’t do so this time for a lack of options. With a Europa League second leg to negotiate before travelling to Dundee on Sunday, there is little time to rest beyond recovery in the immediate future. It is clear for everyone if you look now and four months ago there is a huge change,” he added when pressed on Rangers’ ability to compete across multiple fronts. “You see it also in all the stats of the team. We are not there where I want them to be but for that, I need preparation – what they missed, clearly, because still people are falling out and coming out and others falling out and coming back so there are only a few players really ready for what I want, and that is a competitive team who are there every three days with that intensity. “We have a few like Connor, John [Souttar], Lunny, Tav and there are a few growing in that way. But I want the total squad to be like that and for that you need more training and I cannot do that at the moment because we have so many games. The thing is the solidarity – everyone working hard for the team in whatever position and that is why we get all these results.”You can see Clement’s point looking at Rangers’ minutes played chart below in the Scottish Premiership. James Tavernier, Jack Butland, John Lundstram and Connor Goldson are the only core group of players who’ve consistently featured throughout the league season.
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