Rangers: Injury alarm bells ring amid Ibrox pursuit of Callum O’Hare from Coventry City
Callum O’Hare’s recent injury history is a “real worry” if Rangers are looking to sign him, according to Derek Ferguson.
The Coventry City midfielder was out of action for 10 months through 2023 with a ruptured ACL, having also missed almost three months at the start of last season with a hamstring injury.
He’s bounced back to score six times and assist three more in the Championship this term, and now both Rangers and Celtic are reportedly eyeing a potential free transfer deal for him this summer along with clubs in La Liga [Tom Collomosse, 1 March].
But with Philippe Clement currently having to deal with extensive fitness issues at Ibrox Ferguson believes it is an issue the club has “got to be really careful about” when signing players, especially when the attacking midfield area where he operates is relatively well covered.
He exclusively told Ibrox News: “He’s been out with an injury. I’m going to be honest, I think we’ve been guilty of doing that with players.
“Bringing in players with a history of injury, I think that’s something we’ve got to be really careful about when we bring players to the football club.
“They’ve got to be able to play 30-plus games a season, so that’s a slight worry.
“I don’t know too much about the boy but if his names out there and he’s being linked with Rangers he’s obviously a good player, that’s for sure.
“But I think in that department we’re quite well off. We’ve got [Tom] Lawrence, we’ve got [Todd] Cantwell in there, [Mohamed] Diomande can play different roles as well.
“So I’d be surprised if he came, but sometimes you’ll get little dimes, little nuggets, that you can maybe pluck from the lower leagues down in England.
“But that flags up a real worry about having that injury.”
Coventry man risks adding to injury crisis at Rangers?
Whether it is bad luck or poor planning the constant selection problems at Ibrox hardly need adding to, so unless O’Hare is a must-have target for Clement it might put the Belgian off.
The Englishman did play 45 out of 46 Championship fixtures two seasons ago but his recent history is a worry, especially when the likes of Lawrence and Kieran Dowell have arrived on free transfers from the English second tier and missed more games than they have played due to endless injury issues.
Others including John Souttar and Ridvan Yilmaz had their first seasons badly interrupted by fitness problems, while all of Danilo, Abdallah Sima and Oscar Cortes have been ruled out for long periods during the debut Rangers campaign this year.
Ryan Jack’s and Kemar Roofe’s constant set backs likely mean they will both leave the club this summer, and Yilmaz is now the latest struck down again, so injury history may need to be given more prominence when it comes to recruitment from now on.
In other Rangers news, a Gers attacker has now gone public with his wish to leave the club.
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