Daniel Feliciano

Mon 9 January 2023 7:10, UK

Michael Beale has confirmed that Rangers striker Antonio Colak was substituted during the win over Dundee United due to injury.

The Croatian was handed his first start since Beale’s arrival at the club at Tannadice, but he was brought off at half-time after an anonymous showing in the opening 45 minutes.

But while many speculated that the manager had simply had enough of his performance and brought in Alfredo Morelos as a saviour, it’s now confirmed that it was due to an injury and was enforced.

“Antonio Colak picked up a knock and had to go off at half-time so that was enforced change rather than one we wanted to make and that’s unfortunate for him, but I’m hoping it’s not a long one,” he said, as quoted by the Daily Record (8 January).

Blow

Rangers have been working so hard to get the squad back to a condition that is strong enough to compete even with players missing, and we seemed to be edging back in that direction.

However now with Colak failing to impress in his first 45 minutes back in action and then picking up another knock, it seems likely that this is a backwards step.

The positive is that despite his own recent struggles, Morelos came on and made an immediate impact with his physicality and movement and seems to be getting fitter.

In what is a huge blow to Beale, he will now have one less attacking option to rely upon for the Scottish Cup semi-final clash in midweek, as well as the other important fixtures coming up in January.

Hopefully he can recover, because it’s never a good thing to have your top goalscorer out with injury, but more importantly the hope is that this won’t be a long one and he’ll be back sooner than later.

In other Rangers news, star man flops to 3/10 in win v Dundee Utd while man of the match scores 8/10