Blow for Rangers as Jack return put on hold
Rangers midfielder Ryan Jack has suffered a further delay to his comeback from injury and will now miss today’s clash with Hibs at Ibrox.
The Scotland international has not played since he had to be substituted after 56 minutes of the Scottish Premiership leaders’ 4- 0 home win against his former club Aberdeen on November 22.
Jack did return to training earlier this week with Rangers assistant manager Gary Mcallister expressing optimism he would be back in the squad for the visit of third- placed Hibs.
But the 28- year-old will instead miss a tenth consecutive match after Rangers manager Steven Gerrard revealed the player’s condition continues to cause some concern.
"Unfortunately, Ryan won’t be back for the Hibs game,” said Gerrard. “It has taken a little bit longer than we thought, so that is just not clear at the moment. I don’t really want to rush that, so he won’t be available for the next game.”
Jack, who has been managing a knee problem for the last couple of seasons, has been one of Gerrard’s standout performers when he has been involved this season as Rangers have surged into a 16- point lead in the Premiership title race and reached the last 32 of the Europa League. He also played a crucial role in Scotland’s success in reaching a first major tournament finals since 1998 when they defeated Serbia in their Euro 2020 playoff final last month. But this is now the second time his campaign has been disrupted by injury. He also l i mped out of Rangers’ match against Dundee United on September 12 after only 11 minutes and missed the next four games.
Meanwhile, Hibs defender Ryan Porteous says he will not alter his all- action style as he prepares to face Rangers.
The 21- year- old centre- half caused a stir last time the two teams met on September 20, when the capital club held Gerrard’s men to a 2- 2 draw.
Rangers skipper James Tavernier and striker Alfredo Morelos refused to acknowledge Porteous at full- time, while Gerrard appeared to snub a handshake from him afterwards and then went on to say in his post- match press-conference that Porteous had called Tavernier “a bad loser” and that his words to his players were “cheap”. Porteous is, though, unmoved by those comments.
"He's probably j ust really competitive and he wants to win games,” Porteous said on Gerrard. “He was a bit frustrated that he never won the last one. He maybe took it out on me, but he can take it out on me all he wants. I take nothing personally. He [ Gerrard] was probably a player that wound up a few people and, not that I'm going out of my way to do that, but I don't change my game for anybody. You've seen me enough to know that I don't differentiate my play when I play Rangers. I'm always the exact same and I always want to win every game.”