Giovanni van Bronckhorst confirms Ianis Hagi likely to miss start of Rangers season
Rangers manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst has confirmed that Ianis Hagi is likely to miss the start of next season following his season-ending knee injury.
The Romanian international suffered a bad injury while playing for the Bears against Aberdeen last month, rupturing his cruciate knee ligaments.
His national team coach revealed in midweek that he felt the 23-year-old could struggle to return in time for the start of the next campaign [Daily Record], and now GvB has confirmed that is a likely scenario.
“Well, it’s a cruciate ligament,” he said during his most recent press conference.
“I’ve had the injury as well and it’s between six and nine months so if you count it’s likely he will miss the start of the season. It’s not difficult maths to do.
“Hopefully, his recovery will go smoothly, that’s our main objective. If you’re out for between six and nine months you have to wait and see how the rehab is developing. But for me, that is no surprise.”
Blow
It goes without saying that being without Hagi for the remainder of this season is a huge blow, but news that he won’t be available at the start of the next season is devastating.
Hagi is one of, if not the, best players at the club and even in the country so his injury dealt the club a huge blow in their bid to retain the league title.
The club were able to act quickly in order to bring in Amad Diallo on loan from Manchester United during the January transfer window, but they won’t have him next year.
There had been some speculation that he could leave the club, but this injury has probably bought Rangers some time to hang on to him.
Whether he can come back to his best following the injury remains to be seen, but Van Bronckhorst will need to come up with an alternative plan for the start of next season.
In other Rangers news, Ex-Rangers ace hits out after January exit, insists he got no chance at Ibrox