15 players likely out for Rangers’ Old Firm cup final | OneFootball

One of the earliest things then-new Rangers manager Philippe Clement was adamant about was fixing the absolutely catastrophic Ibrox injury crisis.

Making the quips of ‘I feel more like a doctor than a manager’ the Belgian boss was aghast at the level of injuries Rangers had, and was going to put plans in place to resolve the problem.

Indeed, one of the strategies was instructing players to use the cryo unit more, a healing device for marquee athletes there since Auchenhowie’s construction but barely used.

Clement couldn’t believe it was hardly touched, and made his players hop in there more.

We all thought such a simple move would help, and indeed, Clement appeared boastfully confident he was going to resolve this.

7 months on from Philippe Clement’s appointment, Rangers’ injuries are worse, not better.

The manager has had 7 months to make a difference on those injuries, and while there was a brief hiatus a couple of months ago with ‘just’ five out injured, present day Rangers’ entire squad is abysmally ravaged with injury and selection for the Scottish Cup final is going to be hard.

At the time of writing, the following are either out, or 50/50 at best to start or even be on the bench:

Connor Goldson, Leon Balogun, Borna Barisic, John Souttar, Ridvan Yilmaz, Dujon Sterling, John Lundstram, Ryan Jack, Abdallah Sima, Danilo, Rabbi Matondo, Alex Lowry, Tom Lawrence, Oscar Cortes and Kemar Roofe.

15 players.

So, Clement’s injury strategy has failed, completely. He’s not fixed this, he’s arguably made it worse.

Clement has made it clear he gives strategic minutes to players based on how long they can last, advice given him by the medical staff – but ultimately he makes the judgement call on starting, benching, and using.

And evidently, his judgement has not been the best, because he is potentially missing 15 players, half the squad, for the trip to Mount Florida this weekend.

A lot of fans have noted how the injuries have actually gotten worse under Clement, not better.

And whatever is going on inside Auchenhowie, whatever strategies he’s employing – they ain’t making a difference except in a southern direction.

We’ve never seen an injury-crisis-hit season like it at Rangers.

My oh my.