Rangers: John Souttar injury concern as he is left out for Scotland v Norway
Rangers defender John Souttar has been left out of the Scotland squad for the Euro 2024 qualifier against Norway in Oslo, as revealed by the national team’s Twitter account.
It creates an injury concern ahead of the start of pre-season at the end of the month, despite the former Hearts man returning to training with Scotland in the build-up to the game.
Souttar was struggling with an unspecified injury then it was reported [Rangers Review] that he was able to rejoin the group on Wednesday, but the team news this afternoon shows that he has been omitted from the matchday squad.
Rangers are represented by Ryan Jack, who has to settle for a place on the bench at the Ullevaal Stadium, whilst Billy Gilmour is amongst a few other subs with previous connections to Ibrox.
Clarity should be provided on Souttar’s injury situation by Scotland boss Steve Clarke over the course of the Group A encounter, but even more so in the build-up to Tuesday’s game against Georgia.
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At the time of writing, there is no other information as to why the Rangers man is not involved against Norway.
Given what has happened during the week, it is safe to assume that he has been deemed as not fit to feature.
The real question is to what extent. Will he be ok for the next game, at Hampden on Tuesday, or is this going to be an injury issue that will need to be dealt with by Rangers, ahead of the squad’s return to commence preparations for the new campaign?
It is a cause for concern and an understandable reaction given the 26-year-old’s track record but we we should know more about his condition very soon.
Meanwhile, Jack is likely to see action at some stage over the course of the two games for his country. He has embedded himself as an important component in Clarke’s squad, even if he isn’t a regular starter for the Scots.
It will be very interesting to see if a similar outcome happens at Ibrox in the new season, depending on the transfer business conducted by Michael Beale in the coming weeks.
In other Rangers news, the club are now close to sealing another major signing after the announcement of Sam Lammers in their biggest acquisition of the summer window.