Steven Gerrard has confirmed that he will hold showdown talks with “unsettled” midfielder Ovie Ejaria tomorrow (Friday) as speculation swirls around the Liverpool loanee’s future at Rangers.
The Scotsman has reported that Ejaria, 21, has deleted his Twitter account, unfollowed Rangers on Instagram and removed any sign of the club from his profile amid rumours that his season-long loan at Ibrox has been terminated early.
Ejaria also failed to travel with the rest of the Light Blues squad to Austria for the Europa League clash against Rapid Vienna on Thursday night, despite being a first team regular most of the season.
Gerrard has admitted that there is an issue with the midfielder, and he will hold talks with him this week in a bid to iron out any problems.
“There are many players that are not with us tonight for different reasons,” Gerrard said on BT Sport 3 on Thursday evening (05:41pm).
“Ovie is slightly unsettled at the moment. I chatted to him a couple of days ago and we decided it was best to leave him at home.
“The plan is to talk to Ovie on Friday to see where he’s at.”
OPINION
Ejaria’s form has been very worrying lately and it would not be a massive shock if he is sent back to Liverpool in January because Rangers cannot afford to have loanees hanging around if they are not playing. Ejaria was not involved against Rapid Vienna on Thursday after being axed to the bench for the 1-1 draw at Dundee last week. Maybe the midfielder is just upset at being dropped from the starting line-up and has thrown his toys out of the pram. If that is the case then Gerrard should be able to put his foot down and get Ejaria back involved this weekend after talks tomorrow. If it is much more serious than that then Gerrard needs to let him go back to Liverpool. Some players just cannot cope with the pressure at Ibrox and fans have been on Ejaria’s back lately. Maybe it is to do with that. We may never know the true issue but Gerrard needs to reach a conclusion soon.