Rangers star Oscar Cortes likely ‘out for the season’ | OneFootball

And so we come to the final biggie of the evening, Oscar Cortes. Sheepishly, Philippe Clement confirmed Cortes is basically out for the season, as the Belgian gaffer could offer no reason as to why the Colombian winger was injured, citing it as a ‘strange’ one.

In short, the Killie pitch played a big role there, and now the hotshot and on-fire Colombian is likely to require surgery, leaving him out till May at the earliest.

In simple terms, a really, really, REALLY bad Clement call to play Cortes on that surface backfired spectacularly and a guy who’s only played 350 minutes (of very good) football since joining is now gone for probably the whole season.

Ibrox Noise, knowing Killie’s farce pitch, HEAVILY recommended Cortes did not start, and assumed Clement, as an intelligent man, would use his more ‘expendable’ players on that surface to save his key assets like Cortes.

For some bizarre reason he elected to start Cortes, and now he’s gone likely till next season in a very poor decision that could even have ramifications for Rangers signing him, because he’s only an option to buy, he’s not obligation.

Cortes had been sensational, the biggest impact player we’ve seen at Rangers since Todd Cantwell’s outstanding spell between January and May last year, and we were very excited about watching more of him this season.

But we strongly advised against him starting on Killie’s murderous surface given what happened, for example, to Jamie Murphy and going back even further, Martyn Waghorn.

For some reason, known only to Clement, he naively decided to start the boy on that pitch, and only really has himself to blame for losing a key asset in a decision that may well affect the title race.

Of course, the pitch isn’t Clement’s fault, we’re not blaming him for that – but it’s there, and we have to deal with it, and using fast, zippy running dribbling wingers who need directional movement and sharp turns was among his dumbest calls as Rangers boss.

And now we’re without Cortes probably for the rest of the campaign, unless a miracle happens.

This one is on Clement entirely, sadly, for all the great he has done, and he has done much great, this one is his because it was his decision knowing it was a nasty Astroturf 4G or whatever it is these days pitch.

Did that decision cost 56?

If we don’t win it, that decision along with losing to Motherwell may stand as pivotal moments in reflection.

We really hope we’re praising Clement instead for working miracles come a few months from now.