Rangers injured ace Kemar Roofe sends ‘deja vu’ message to ex-Leeds United teammate Luke Ayling
Rangers forward Kemar Roofe reacted to former Leeds United teammate Luke Ayling’s goal at the weekend with a message on social media.
The pair spent three seasons at teammates at Elland Road and the injured Gers man offered his support after the defender’s first goal in exactly 12-months helped push the England Premier League side to a dramatic 4-2 win at Wolves.
It was a year to the day since Ayling had scored his last goal, at the same end at Molineux in the corresponding fixture last season, drawing plenty of reaction online with the same slapstick celebration.
Commenting on Ayling’s Instagram post with images of his attempt to emulate former Leeds, Wolves and Celtic forward Robbie Keane’s cartwheel and forward role the Gers man wrote “déjà vu” with a pair of fire emojis.
Rotten luck
Rangers fans would be delighted if the roles were reversed and it could be the SPFL striker who was posting pictures of his goal celebrations, but Roofe’s fortunes with injuries have been appalling over the past year.
Repeated knee issues have kept the 30-year-old out for virtually the entire season, before Michael Beale revealed on 10 March that a hip operation would now keep him out for the rest of the campaign.
Despite only featuring in six substitute appearances this year the Jamaican international has still scored twice, but every time he made a comeback he was then ruled out again.
The absence has contributed to the Light Blues falling nine points back from Celtic under Giovanni van Bronckhorst, a gap that has so far proven impossible to narrow since the arrival of Beale.
The Gers have little to play for aside from the Scottish Cup now so Roofe probably has plenty of time to keep up with the fortunes of his former clubs, and with Leeds locked in a relegation battle south of the border they are sure to take some focus.
The hope has to be that the unfortunate goalscorer, who has proven his worth with 36 strikes in Light Blues colours since his arrival in 2020, will finally be injury-free at the start of the new campaign and can contribute fully once more.
In other Rangers news, the club could sell four players in the summer and bank millions in virtually total profit.