Liam Kelly set for game-changing chance after Rangers news emerges
Liam Kelly will never get a better opportunity to stake his claim as a long-term Rangers option than in the Old Firm on Thursday against Celtic.
Kelly is set to deputise in the Ibrox derby showdown [2 January] following the devastating news on [1 January] that Jack Butland was admitted to hospital with a “significant” internal bleed.
As Butland begins a spell of recuperation – the length of which is so far unconfirmed – Kelly, 28, is in line for just his second appearance of the campaign in its biggest fixture to date.
Of all the domestic contests Philippe Clement’s men will face this term, there are unlikely to be many in which the goalkeeper will be any busier given Celtic’s attacking record.
Liam Kelly can dictate Rangers future v Celtic
Kelly has been around long enough to know how to apply himself mentally at a moment’s notice to throw himself into a huge encounter as a backup goalkeeper.
The key aspect of Butland’s sudden setback is that the Englishman appears to be on the road to recovery, having been forced to spend New Year’s Eve monitored in hospital with a serious bleed to his leg.
It was an emotional return to Ibrox last summer for Kelly, who had progressed through the academy ranks in Govan before his release in 2018 without a first-team appearance, just months after his senior Scotland debut against France and a subsequent inclusion in the Euro 2024 squad.
Kelly will have been satisfied with his eventual Gers debut, which arrived against Dundee on 21 December. With one save made and little in the way of chances to face, he kept a clean sheet in the narrow 1-0 win.
If he can play to the best of his obvious ability in the Old Firm, he could become the Rangers hero – at least in the short-term – he longed to be as an academy prospect.
In other Rangers news, Dan Plumley predicts the outcome of the January transfer window.
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