Potential boost for Celtic as Rangers’ Ryan Kent suffers illness

Add as preferred source on Google

There could be a timely boost for Celtic ahead of their trip to Ibrox next week regarding Ryan Kent.

Rangers defeated Hibernian 1-0 yesterday at Ibrox to win their fifth consecutive match. But star-man Kent was brought off at half-time for Daniel Candeias.

Kent, of course, only last night won the Young Player of the Year award. But only hours beforehand, he was apparently vomiting according to Steven Gerrard.

The Ibrox manager spoke to Rangers TV after their Hibs win. Touching on Kent, he said the following:

“Ryan is ill. He was vomiting in the bathroom at half-time. I don’t think he felt great throughout the first half, either, so it just made sense to make a change.”

Chances of being 100% surely isn’t likely

This would be a good boost for Celtic. Kent has had a fine season for Rangers, and has both scored and assisted against us this season too. Regardless of what you think about the Ibrox side, he has shown he can hurt us in the past if we aren’t switched on.

If Rangers were to miss him for the game next Sunday, you have to wonder where their creativity is going to come from. With Celtic high in confidence after a fine 3-0 win at Pittodrie on Saturday, we’ll be going to Ibrox with our tails up. They’ll need every one of their best players to perform on the day.

Kent was, however, able to collect his Young Player of the Year award at the PFA awards dinner last night. Therefore, despite any illness he’s picked up, he’s clearly still able to get up and about.

A week is a long time in football. It’s also plenty of time to recover from an illness. But to expect Kent to be at 100% is still doubtful, and that alone is a boost for us.

Words can’t underestimate how important this final Glasgow derby is. We’ll take any advantage we can get, as momentum simply has to stay high going into the Scottish Cup final with Hearts.

It remains to be seen how Kent recovers during the week. But if he does miss out, make no mistake, it’s a massive shot in the arm to go with Allan McGregor’s suspension.