Parkhead shocker as Clement confirms up to 8 Rangers players out | OneFootball

Rangers manager Philippe Clement has unsurprisingly kept Celtic (and Rangers fans) guessing over the fitness of Leon Balogun by only suggesting he’s a doubt and not confirming anything beyond that.

The manager, speaking ahead of the title-decider with Celtic tomorrow, was giving little away on Balogun, but was more forthcoming on other injuries, confirming absences for the trip to Parkhead are:

Connor Goldson, Ryan Jack, Alex Lowry, Oscar Cortes, Danilo, Rabbi Matondo and Abdallah Sima.

So that officially rules out any idea some fans had that Sima or Matondo would be available for this one, but very interestingly it was the first time Clement had referred to Alex Lowry pretty much since his return to Rangers from Hearts amid the controversy over that situation.

So this means seven players are ruled out officially for the championship ‘decider’ and Leon Balogun is very likely to join them, if we’re honest.

Clement is being optimistic over the Nigerian, we’d suggest, hinting there is a possibility he could play, but unfortunately we’d be a lot more pessimistic about him and we’d say he’s 70/30 against for playing.

The fact he had to go off at half time at the weekend wasn’t a good sign, and we’d be very shocked if he’s available tomorrow.

In truth, none of the other absences are surprises, all were known to be injured, but mercifully as Clement put it, there are no ‘new’ injuries since Balogun’s, meaning Rangers have no further losses to contend with for this one.

How does this affect selection?

It doesn’t. This very much fits with Ibrox Noise’s prediction, and all the players we told you weren’t fit, aren’t, and the ones we selected are likely to be the starting XI.

Maybe Clement will shake it up dramatically, but we’d be loathe to predict that.

So the chances are that 8 players are unavailable. Not ideal at all.