Derek McInnes: Key injuries leave Rangers ‘playing with fire’ to cover positions
Derek McInnes believes Rangers are “playing with fire” with the lack of available players in their squad as he looks for injury cover for Tuur Rommens as well as for striker Youssef Chermiti.
Rangers confirmed on Tuesday that the 22-year-old Portuguese striker – subject to a failed bid from Galatasaray for a club record fee of £22million – “will be out of action for a significant period of time” after picking up an ACL injury sustained in the 2-1 William Hill Premiership defeat by Hibernian at Ibrox on Sunday.
The boss revealed left-back Rommens, in the worst case scenario, could be out for two months with a groin strain picked up in the last action of the Hibs game.
McInnes has signed nine new players since taking over in the summer following his move from Hearts but ahead of the second leg of their Europa league qualifier against Poland’s Jagiellonia Bialystok at Ibrox on Thursday, where they will look to claw back a 2-1 deficit, he noted the fragile areas in his squad.
He said: “Obviously really disappointed and for ourselves selfishly.
“Youssef’s a big part of what we wanted to do this season and he’s obviously a talented boy.
“He’s actually on his way to London this afternoon to see a specialist and then, maybe next week, get through his operation and then from that point on, it’s just about working back, but a real tough one for the boy, and tough one for us, particularly.
“The only saving grace from our point of view is the fact that it’s happened in a transfer window, and we’ve got the opportunity to react to that.
“We are obviously looking at maybe strengthening defensively and strengthening in wide areas, as a priority, but obviously losing a player of Youssef’s ability, we need to look at that one as well.
“Obviously number nines are normally the most difficult ones to get and we just look at various options at a minute and then we try and get the right one that would complement what we’ve got, ideally, someone of a similar profile of Youssef.
“Tuur’s picked up a groin strain.
“Him and Manny (Emmanuel Fernandez) were only two who played full minutes in Poland and against Hibs and at this stage of the season you’re susceptible to these types of things and we don’t have an array idea of options defensively.
“So obviously Tuur had to go play again in again and it was just in the very last action in the bottom left-hand corner just before Hibs broke, he felt he’s groin twinge a bit and the scan wasn’t great to be honest.
“We’re going be without him for a number of weeks – worst case, probably six to eight weeks, best case, four to six weeks – which exacerbates the situation, defensively we are really short in numbers.
“We don’t have a left-footed defender in the building and we are keen get that resolved quickly as possible, because I do think that when the numbers we have got there we are kind of playing with fire.
“A couple of defenders being injured, Ben Godfrey and now Rommens but the good thing is we’ve got the ability to react to it and hopefully we can react positively and quite swiftly.”
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