Rangers attacker Ryan Kent has been ruled out of Thursday’s crunch Europa League tie against Rapid Vienna, according to the Scottish Sun.
The newspaper claims that the Liverpool loanee hasn’t travelled to Austria for Gers’ must-win fixture, giving manager Steven Gerrard a selection dilemma.
The 22-year-old picked up a knock against Dundee on Sunday, having only just returned from a hamstring injury against Jim McIntyre’s side.
However, left back Lee Wallace and winger Jamie Murphy have travelled with Gerrard’s squad despite both being unavailable for the tie.
OPINION
This is another unfortunate setback for Kent having only just returned from an injury on Sunday. Prior to that he had been having a solid season for Gerrard’s team and was becoming a crucial part of the Liverpool legend’s plans. For him to now miss out on such a key fixture will be a big blow for him. Rangers need to get a positive result against the Austrian side to go through to the knock-out stages and Kent would surely have loved to be involved. However, he has now been ruled out and will have to look for another occasion to try and make a more long-lasting comeback. He has only been ruled out for Thursday’s game so it doesn’t sound as if he’s facing a significant length of time on the sidelines, which is positive. Gerrard would have liked to have him available on Thursday but this is what you have a squad for and the Rangers boss will still be hopeful of victory.