By Daniel Feliciano

8th Jul, 2022 | 9:40pm

Rangers could be without Ianis Hagi until 2023 as recovery continues

Rangers could be without Ianis Hagi until 2023 as the forward continues to push his recovery from a serious knee injury, according to Joshua Barrie.

The Romanian international suffered a rupture of his cruciate ligament in January and missed the rest of the season as Rangers won the Scottish Cup and reached the Europa League final.

He had been hoping to return soon into the new season, but a new report on July 8 claims that he is expected to miss the first half of the season and could return to the picture following the World Cup.

The player has been with the team in Portugal for their pre-season training camp, but will return to the Netherlands to continue rehabilitation once that ends in a hope to get fit for the second half of the season.

The World Cup is due to run from November 21st until December 18th, with the Scottish season resuming on December 17th after a break for the tournament.

Blow

Hagi’s injury was a big debilitating factor in the club’s title challenge falling apart after the new year, when they held a six-point advantage at the top of the table.

The club brought in Amad Diallo on loan from Manchester United to replace him, but he struggled to hit the ground running and ultimately the club struggled without him.

They would have been hoping that the player would be available really soon to boost their chances of wrestling the title back from Celtic, while also improving and hoping to make the Champions League proper.

Instead they’ll have to deal with not having their star man available once again, and with Joe Aribo leaving the club too they’re potentially in an even weaker position.

Whether it throws the club’s transfer plans into disarray or if the club knew this was the case all along is unknown, but Ibrox won’t be seeing Hagi for a little while longer.

In other Rangers news, the club are set to reinvest the Joe Aribo money to several positions in the squad