Tom Lawrence among five Rangers players ruled out of Champions League showdown v Liverpool
Rangers will be without five first-team players for their Champions League showdown with Liverpool, Giovanni van Bronckhorst has confirmed.
The Gers travel to Anfield on Tuesday night for a huge group game clash, having lost their opening two games against Ajax and Napoli without scoring a goal.
But in a blow to the team all of Tom Lawrence, John Souttar, Filip Helander, Kemar Roofe and James Sands will all be unavailable for the game, meaning Van Bronckhorst has the same players available as he did against Hearts, barring Sands.
The American was shown a red card in the defeat to Napoli last time out and is suspended for the game, while the others are all still injured for the foreseeable future.
Van Bronckhorst provided an update on Lawrence’s injury claiming that he picked up a new problem in training and is likely to be out “more months than weeks“.
Huge blow
Having no Tom Lawrence is a huge blow although it was expected, but to find out he’ll be missing for months is not something fans will want to hear.
The former Derby man was in excellent form at the start of the season and contributed to the excellent run of form, and it’s shock that the defeats started coming when he wasn’t available.
His creativity and hard work have been largely missed in the midfield and his partnership with Malik Tillman was key to the American loanees excellent form too.
Now the team will have to make do without him for a long while unfortunately, but it’s an opportunity for players like Glen Kamara, Ryan Jack and Rabbi Matondo to claim a place in the side in his absence.
Rangers face Liverpool at Anfield on Tuesday night knowing a defeat would all but end their hopes of European football in the new year.
In other Rangers news, Kris Boyd named a trio of light blues in his SPFL team week