George Overhill

Wed 24 August 2022 9:40, UK

Star Rangers striker Alfredo Morelos turned up late to his recovery session following his red card against Hibernian, according to The Athletic.

The Colombian was sent off for a swinging arm just 13 minutes after coming on as a substitute at Easter Road, leaving the visitors down to nine men following John Lundstram’s harsh dismissal, in a match where they were eventually pegged back to 2-2 in added time.

Giovanni van Bronckhorst has now made the massive decision to drop the talismanic forward from the squad for the must-win Champions League qualifying game against PSV on Wednesday (24 August) because of fitness and attitude concerns.

It appears issues have been building behind the scenes, and his performance in the Hibs draw coupled with not being on time a day later may have caused things to come to a head.

The Athletic’s Jordan Campbell writes: “[The manager] said it had been “building for a while” due to his behaviour and The Athletic understands that he arrived late for his recovery session on Sunday.”

Although talks over a new contract have now been put on hold as the latest disciplinary issues have arisen he reportedly does still have a future at Ibrox if he can prove his fitness and commitment.

Timing

This is hardly the first time that these sorts of issues have come up with El Bufalo, but that doesn’t make them any more frustrating for the club to deal with.

Until recently it appeared that van Bronckhorst and Roy Makaay had the magic touch with the forward as he was in sparkling form last season before injury in international duty.

The timing could hardly be worse, as the team were at a disadvantage already against Ruud van Nistelrooy’s side for even having the Hibs game since the Dutch FA had rescheduled PSV’s corresponding fixture, and it has now yielded the first dropped points of the league campaign and the Morelos fall-out.

The fact that public statements, and further online rumours, suggest that his teammates are as upset as anyone by his discipline might be the biggest barrier to coming back from this one.

Players will often back fellow players in contrast to the reactions from coaching staff or club officials, so he will have to win them over as much as anyone.

Win in Eindhoven, perhaps with goals from Antonio Colak, and this one could fade into the background for a while until the Colombian has suitably rebuilt bridges, but if the Light Blues look disjointed and sloppy on their way to missing the Champions League at the final hurdle again and more blame could be sent Morelos’ way.

In other Rangers news, a former English Premier League referee says Willie Collum was wrong and a Gers man was very, very unlucky at Hibs.