The Rangers manager Philippe Clement has revealed Neraysho Kasanwirjo could be out for the rest of the season after having knee surgery.
The 22-year-old on-loan Feyenoord defender, known as ‘Nana’, suffered the injury playing for the Netherlands Under-21s against England and has missed the last three Rangers fixtures.
After the 1-0 Scottish Premiership win over St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park, Clement said: “Nana’s operation was good, but he will be at least out for four to six months. So we cannot count on him, so we will see at the end of the season how things go.
“We have the agreement with Feyenoord that he will do his rehab there, but I stay in touch with Nana, who was really disappointed not to continue the work he’s been doing, because he loves the club, he loves the dressing room, even loves the staff – that doesn’t happen so much. So we will see at the end of the season how it will be with him, but we cannot count on him in the next couple of months.”
Rangers travelled to Perth on the back of a stunning 4-1 Europa League win at Nice on Thursday night which took them a step closer to qualification to the knockout stages but yet again there was a drop in performance in the league.
Clement, however, claimed Josh Rae’s performance prevented the Light Blues racking up a more impressive scoreline. The Saints keeper made several saves before and after an own goal in the 63rd minute by former Rangers midfielder Jason Holt.
Clement said: “It was a good performance today, only thing we missed is to score the second, third or fourth goal to finish off the game earlier and to kill the belief with the opponent, which we did well against Nice. But we have to say also, there was a really good goalkeeper on the other side.
Musa Drammeh scored a second-half equaliser as bottom-club Hearts stemmed a four-game losing run in a spirited 1-1 draw at home to stuttering Aberdeen.
Having slipped below city rivals Hibernian to the foot of the table, the beleaguered Tynecastle side started the match strongly before losing two key defenders in quick succession.
Stephen Kingsley was carried off with a serious-looking hamstring injury, then Frankie Kent limped out of the action. Second-placed Aberdeen swiftly took advantage as Leighton Clarkson gave them the lead in the 37th minute.
However, Gambian forward Drammeh headed home on his first start since joining Hearts in the summer, meaning the Dons go into Wednesday’s showdown with leaders Celtic four points off the pace and on the back of a three-game run without victory.
Callum McGregor believes Celtic’s strength in depth was evident in the 5-0 thrashing of Ross County on Saturday. Brendan Rodgers made six changes after the creditable 1-1 Champions League draw with Club Brugge on Wednesday night and four of them – Liam Scales, Luke McCowan, Paulo Bernardo and Adam Idah – scored in the first half along with the Hoops skipper as the rampant leaders wrapped up the points by the interval.
Jack Hamilton replaced the injured County goalkeeper Ross Laidlaw just before the break and he prevented a more damaging score-line with a series of good saves, but there was no doubting Celtic’s superiority.
“The guys that have been coming into the games have made a huge impact for us,” said Callum McGregor. “We make a few changes and the level is super high again. Brilliant energy, brilliant quality, summed up by Luke McCowan. He gets his goal and a few assists as well. But that’s we want, everybody to come in and work as hard as they can for the team and produce those moments. And like I said, we’re all in it together.”
Critchley says ‘fantastic’ Hearts deserved draw
Neil Critchley praised Hearts for a “fantastic” response to their recent troubles as they fought back to end a four-game losing run in a 1-1 draw at home against Aberdeen.
after newsletter promotion
The Jambos were overtaken by their city rivals Hibernian at the foot of the Scottish Premiership on Saturday and looked in danger of further woe when the Dons midfielder Leighton Clarkson opened the scoring shortly after the hosts had lost the key defenders Stephen Kingsley and Frankie Kent to injury.
But Hearts rallied to claim a much-needed point when Musa Drammeh’s header was diverted into the net by the Aberdeen defender Nicky Devlin in the 62nd minute.
“I thought we were fantastic, particularly in the second half,” Critchley said of his side. “I thought we started the game well, I thought we were the better team.
“Obviously two changes early in the game that we had to make disrupts the flow and rhythm of the game. They scored with their first attempt at goal, so it would be easy for us to feel sorry for ourselves in terms of ‘here we go again’. But I said to the players at half-time, we have two choices: moan and sulk about it, or we fight. We certainly fought in the second half and the point is the least we deserved.”
Early indications are that Kingsley could be facing a lengthy lay-off after he was carried off on a stretcher in clear distress with a hamstring injury. “He’s in the dressing room now, he’s on crutches and we’ll have to scan him in the next 48 hours,” Critchley said. “Fingers crossed it’s not as bad as it looks.”
Critchley kept faith with the captain Lawrence Shankland and was pleased with the striker’s display after he was barracked by a section of Hearts’ 3000-strong travelling support on Thursday night as a result of a costly penalty miss in the 2-0 Conference League defeat against Cercle Brugge.
“Easy decision really,” he said. “I spoke to him yesterday, gave him 24 hours to clear his head. And I just said to him: ‘Look, you’re the captain, you lead by example, you lead the line brilliantly well, and as long as we see that effort and endeavour and the commitment at the top end of the pitch, then there’s a lot more to your game than goals.’ I think he showed that again.
“He’s a strong-willed boy. Obviously, it’s going to affect anyone, particularly the run he’s on. He could feel sorry for himself in this situation, it’s a real test for him, but he’ll come through it and he’ll get our support.”
It was a third game in a row without a win for Aberdeen but their manager Jimmy Thelin – who made six changes to add “freshness” to his team – felt a draw was the right outcome. “I think it’s a fair result when the game is over,” he said. “We have some parts when we were 1-0 and we could do better maybe, but also Hearts did well.”
Thelin is waiting to learn if the goalkeeper Dimitar Mitov, who went off at half-time with an apparent hamstring strain, will be fit for the visit of Celtic on Wednesday. “Let’s see tomorrow, we need to make a real check on him first,” the Swede said.
