Ibrox boss’s concerns for Arfield after key player suffers ankle injury
Rangers face a nervous wait to see how quickly Scott Arfield will recover from an ankle injury.
The midfielder was carried off just six minutes after coming on as a substitute in the win against Hibs.
Rangers boss Steven Gerrard is concerned about the 32-year-old and is also frustrated that Ryan Jack is still toiling to beat a knee knock.
Arfield went down after stretching to try to tackle Hibernian’s Melker Hallberg.
Gerrard said: “I’m worried about Scott because he doesn’t come off the pitch in normal circumstances.
“He doesn’t normally ask for a physio to come on. He’s one who will just get up and go again.
“He’s a brave kid, so I’m concerned about it. We’ll assess it.
“He’s had ice on the ankle area, but until it actually gets scanned and assessed properly then I’ve nothing to go on.
“We are having a few issues with Ryan Jack’s recovery and I’m frustrated with it.
“We don’t have a time frame on his recovery.
“We need him back as he is an important player for us as we keep trying to get victories.”
Rangers face St Mirren at Paisley on Wednesday afternoon, then host Celtic in the second Old Firm clash of the campaign on Saturday.
Although the Ibrox manager would rather have Jack and Arfield available, he takes some consolation from the form of two other midfielders.
Joe Aribo looks back to his creative best after missing a big chunk of games and Ianis Hagi yesterday scored for the second-successive match.
Gerrard went on: “Joe has had a real tough season and I don’t think people appreciate what he has been through.
“He had his first serious injury and was out for 12 weeks, which is a long time.
“And then on the back of getting himself ready he gets an illness which
knocked him back for a couple of weeks.
“But you saw the signs of his recovery against St Johnstone. He is really starting to show what he is all about.
“Ianis has been given an opportunity to come back into the team and he has taken it.
“He is still developing and he is still young. You could see him tiring in the closing stages.
“I was very pleased again with his performance, as I was in midweek. He is in a good place.”
Rangers keep changing their centrehalf pairing at the moment, with Leon Balogun coming in to replace Filip Helander yesterday.
The reason for his introduction, said Gerrard, was the Nigerian’s pace. That was important in coping with Hibs’ speedy front two of Martin Boyle and Kevin Nisbet.
Gerrard added: “He’s got that speed and mobility. He covers the ground really quickly.
“We knew they were going to go two up top because they didn’t have Christian Doidge available.
“We knew they were going to play Boyle closer to Nisbet and look to play on the counter attack down the sides.
“It was important that our full-backs were really sensible in terms of their protection.
“Hibs have got players who can hurt you on the counter’ but I thought we handled that extremely well besides one or two moments.”