FEBRUARY 21. A date Ryan Jack is unlikely to forget any time soon.
Boss Gerrard won’t take risks on Ibrox midfielder
In the seven months since, the Rangers midfielder hasn’t kicked a single ball for Steven Gerrard’s team.
A recurrence of a persistent calf complaint suffered during a routine 4-1 win over Dundee United has proved to be far more troubling than anyone at Ibrox could have imagined.
It cost Jack the chance to play a part in what could be career-defining moments – the club’s historic title run-in and the opportunity to shine for Scotland at the Euros – with no guarantees they will come again.
So that is why Gerrard is willing to wait for the 29-year-old to fully recover before thrusting him back into action.
The Gers boss is keeping fingers crossed there is finally light at the end of the tunnel and a return to training could be just weeks away.
Yet he said something similar when it was confirmed at the tail end of last season that Jack would undergo surgery in a desperate bid to at last solve an issue which had repeatedly forced the former Aberdeen skipper to breakdown.
It’s a situation that has frustrated the Ibrox faithful, who have spent the last two months eagerly awaiting news.
But given all Jack has been through, Gerrard isn’t ready to circle a date in the diary for his return just yet.
“Really good,” was his enthusiastic reply in answer to the latest request for an update on Jack’s progress. “He’s due back on the pitch any day now and hopefully we’ll get him back within a couple of weeks. And then we can see him back playing.
“Ryan is desperate to come back. He’s had a really frustrating time, we have been frustrated for him because he’s such a key part of how we play.
“Hopefully this time he can come back clean, ready and help contribute towards the team. But we’re not going to put a date on Ryan Jack. I think he’s been out too long and missed too many games to put a date on it.
“We don’t want Ryan to feel he’s
letting us down, we don’t want to let the fans down if we get that date wrong. It’s one where we will be patient with him and we’ll get him back when he’s ready, that’s the key.”
Gerrard was more definitive as he confirmed Ryan Kent will not be back from his hamstring strain before next month’s international break.
“It is difficult to say whether it will be three-and-a-half or four-and-a-half weeks,” he said. “It will depend probably on the final stages of the rehab when he gets up to sprinting and gets up to going flat out and kicking a ball.
“But we have been told it could be somewhere between three to four weeks so I think the earliest you will see him is after international duty.”
Gerrard could certainly do with having both key men back as his side flails about in search of last season’s imperious form. But at least he now has the services of Ianis Hagi available.
He made a sensational return from Covid quarantine to spark Gers into life against Livingston in midweek and Gerrard believes his ability to unlock stuffy defences will be vital at Dundee.
Gerrard said: “Listen, we knew the talent that we were buying and knew the talent that Ianis had.
“We knew there were areas of his game he could grow and improve. The one thing you are dealing with here is a player who is obsessed to get better, whether that be off the pitch in the gymnasium, he is to the millimetre in terms of his nutrition and his diet and his professionalism.
“And he is someone that stays behind after every single session trying to improve parts of his game.
“He is an absolute pleasure to work with. He has got real good people around him who are helping support him in the game in terms of representation, in terms of his dad, which everyone knows about.
“He’s had a bit of a disrupted season. He took a whack in the first league game against Livingston and he was in great form then.
“But he has looked after himself since and slowly he has got back to where we need him to be, which is that creative tool in the final third.
“We have been lacking that a little bit in certain games so to see him come on and have such a quick impact bodes well for the up and coming games.
“There’s a big three points at stake and that’s the main focus for us. Obviously Dundee have come up and are just finding their feet in the league. But we understand it will be a tough game.”