View: Rangers season in danger of collapse with Alfredo Morelos injury
Rangers are facing the biggest month of their football season in the last decade, and their task of winning games may have just got a whole lot tougher.
Alfredo Morelos picked up an injury before the international break but flew to his native Colombia to represent the national team anyway.
He was sent home though after missing the first game with ‘muscle overload‘ [Pipe Sierra], and there was immediately doubt over whether or not he would be available for Rangers to take on Celtic on Sunday in their Premiership clash.
Hopes were high that he would be able to recover with some rest, but those hopes took a huge hit on Thursday when the 25-year-old was pictured in an airport on crutches.
Some follow up comments suggest that he is en route to London for a scan on the injury, which would almost certainly rule him out of the huge title decider with Celtic at Ibrox.
But worse than that, if the injury is deemed as serious, he could be ruled out of the upcoming fixtures against Braga in the Europa League quarter-finals and the Scottish Cup semi-final against Celtic in a couple of weeks too.
With Rangers looking to secure a historic treble with a huge end to the season, the loss of their most important attacker could end up seeing a tremendous run end with them empty handed instead.
What Morelos brings to the team is beyond just goals. His energy is excellent, he presses well, he holds the ball up brilliantly and his link play with the midfield and wingers is key to their build-up.
While Kemar Roofe has proven that he can score goals at this level, the drop off in quality between the two is huge and could be the difference between the club being successful on all fronts or missing out everywhere.
The hope would be that Morelos is fine and it’s just precautionary, then he turns up at Ibrox on Sunday and scores a hat-trick. Crutches make that seem almost impossible though.
Rangers boss Giovanni van Bronckhorst must now find a way to get the most from a striker in Roofe who has rarely been called upon since his arrival at the club, during the most important period of the club’s season.
If he can’t do that, the injury to Morelos could see the entire campaign crumble in the space of just a few short weeks.
In other Rangers news, BBC pundit Mark Hateley tells Rangers not to prioritise competitions and makes Old Firm derby prediction.