Rangers sweating on fitness of three players a week before Celtic clash

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Rangers are sweating on the fitness of three of their first-team players less than a week before they welcome Celtic in the Scottish Premiership.

James Tavernier, Ryan Jack, and Jermain Defoe all missed Rangers’ 1-0 win at Ross County yesterday. It was a result that narrowed the game at the top of the table to 13 points.

Rangers host Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League last-16 on Thursday – just three days before they host Neil Lennon’s Hoops. And it looks as though they’re nursing some injuries as the crisis-hit Ibrox side prepare for their toughest test since the winter break.

Speaking to the BBC, Gerrard said the following regarding the crocked trio:

“Defoe is definitely out. There’s a chance for Jack and Tav (for Thursday night). Jack is with us – he got off the bus last night and had an issue with his knee.

“Tavernier tried to train on Saturday on an injury that he came off the pitch with and he made it worse. So he is probably a bigger doubt than Jack.”

Not one look like being 100% fit for Sunday

Not one of the three played in today’s game against Ross County. Therefore, even if any of them are rushed in for Thursday’s game, it doesn’t look like they’re going to be at full strength for our visit on Sunday.

As for their replacements today – Matt Polster, Joe Aribo, and Florian Kamberi certainly shouldn’t strike any fear into us. This is a club low on confidence, and having some of their better players missing could be a recipe for disaster for them.

It’ll be interesting to see how much Thursday takes out of Rangers too. This is the only silver lining to us not progressing to the Europa League last-16 stage. Had we done so, it could’ve taken plenty out of us before the crucial game on Sunday.

Now, we get to put our feet up and see what toil Leverkusen put on Rangers. Another convincing defeat won’t help matters for them either, as confidence at Ibrox remains at rock-bottom.

Celtic, of course, won’t exactly be fearful if the trio are all fit for Sunday. However, there’s no denying that any injury problems for them will drain morale even further ahead of our Ibrox meeting.

As the week progresses, it’s very much a case of watch this space.

What do you make of these injury knocks? Does it bolster our chances of success on Sunday? Should we even care? Give us your verdict in the discussion forum below.