What injuries have cost Rangers over course of this season

Over the weekend, it was confirmed that Alex Lowry was the latest first-team member to face a spell on the treatment table. 

As already covered by the Rangers Review last week, summer signings had been unavailable for a combined 43 percent of fixtures this season at the time of writing. Through a mixture of circumstance and bad luck the core of this squad has not evolved sufficiently over the course of the campaign.

Too many individuals, as shown in the below minutes played scatter graph, have featured sporadically due to injury. The domestic core of league performers, save Malik Tillman and Ben Davies, are all very recognisable from years gone by.

“We need to reduce the number of the squad. If you look at our squad, we've carried a large number of players because of injuries,” Michael Beale said speaking last week.

The number of absentees has proved unmanageable from a squad-building perspective, leaving Giovanni van Bronckhorst, and latterly Beale, unable to call on a full compliment, or utilise this squad’s diversity of talents.

The loss of three players in particular, Lawrence, Ridvan Yilmaz and Kemar Roofe, has been costly on an individual basis.

Tom Lawrence

Lawrence has suffered setback upon setback ever since going down in injury time against Ross County last August. The 29-year-old's goal threat, runs from deep and flexibility cast him an early favourite after arriving from Derby in the summer and a tendency to shoot from range didn’t hurt perceptions.

There’s an unrealistic pattern of injured players growing better by the week that's seen all around football. But, instead of arguing about any potential change of course had Lawrence been fit this season, it’s fair to question how much healthier the squad’s complexion and competition would’ve been with a peak attacking midfielder readily available, capable of providing numbers in the final third.

Lawrence had two goals and two assists in four Premiership starts and one appearance from the bench before his injury troubles began.

In the season’s early weeks, the arrivals of Lawrence and Scott Arfield from the bench helped turn 2-0 matches into 4-0 routs, against St Johnstone and Ross County. All throughout this campaign, the Ibrox side have not been able to properly utilise the strength of their bench to alter the course of matches.

Timing runs from deep into the box is probably the strongest attribute Lawrence demonstrated in the month of August.

In this match against County, he checks left and angles his run in that direction to create room for a run towards the back post. Steven Davis subsequently slots home behind Lawrence, who flicks the ball into his path.

A header away at Hibs demonstrated the same qualities, with Lawrence this time making the decisive run after Antonio Colak hit the front post.

Lawrence had 0.32xG and 0.24xG Assisted in the league before his injury. Although that’s a small sample size, the Welshman looked sure to provide meaningful numbers in the final third.

Ridvan Yilmaz

The 21-year-old Turkish left-back took up a significant chunk of the summer's outlay, had to wait 10 matchdays for his second league start after an early debut against Kilmarnock and then suffered a hamstring tear seven minutes into a 4-1 win over Aberdeen. That afternoon in late October is now well over four months ago.

“Ridvan probably needs to play a reserve game with a view to coming back in either mid-week or coming back in for the Raith Rovers Scottish Cup game,” was Beale’s latest update.

Not only was the defender destined to succeed Borna Barisic, who’d already been usurped by Calvin Bassey the season before, but he also offered a more varied option given his modern interpretation of the full-back role.

The ex-Besiktas man is comfortable moving infield, carrying the ball and finding solutions. Whereas Barisic is far more suited to holding width on the left and delivering crosses, less able to mix up his game and progress play.

Ridvan's qualities were immediately obvious during his aforementioned start against Aberdeen. The left-back drove infield and progressed play three times before an injury seven minutes into proceedings.

His ability to bring freshness in a position that requires it and provide variation has also proved detrimental to Rangers' campaign.

Kemar Roofe

Buried in the Lawrence news was a less surprising piece of information – Kemar Roofe has suffered another setback.

"Kemar tried to train on Saturday but it was no good,” Beale lamented.

“Unfortunately with Kemar he’s going through a tough time at the moment and he will be away to see someone as we need to get to the end of this. He has a problem with his calf but there are one or two other things that could be leading to that that have been nagging. Me and him have had a real heart-to-heart.

"He’s a boy that I’m really close to. I want to see him get some light at the end of the tunnel so we’re going to get some advice on that.”

In the two seasons previous to the current campaign, Rangers did seem to be able to manage the 30-year-old’s minutes more successfully, even if a spell out of the side was never too far away.

In 2020/21, Roofe made 24 league appearances, 18 of which were starts, and missed the matchday squad on 10 occasions.

In 2021/22, he made 20 league appearances, nine of which were starts as he appeared out of favour at points under Van Bronckhorst and missed the matchday squad on 12 occasions.

This season has been exceptionally bad. Roofe’s missed 23 of 27 matchday squads, failing to register a single start and playing a combined 58 league minutes.

The forward has consistently overperformed his xG since arriving in the summer of 2020. Scoring 14 goals from 10.67xG in his first campaign and seven from 6.39xG the following season.

And, cameos from the bench in a 3-0 win against Livingston and 2-1 semi-final win over Aberdeen reminded us what he can provide as a centre-forward.

There’s little doubt that if he was fully fit, Roofe would lead the line at Ibrox more often than not given his intelligent movement, strong finishing and ability to connect play. The issue is, that feels like a distant memory because it very much is.

Conclusion

Steven Davis’ season-ending absence has also proved harmful. As Beale reiterated at the time, the veteran midfielder still had a big part to play from the bench and you can be sure in the New Year Old Firm when Rangers needed to close out proceedings, he’d have been Beale’s first introduction from the bench.

John Souttar’s injury issues were predictable but alongside Filip Helander, the club have had two first-team centre-backs out of action all season, leading to James Sands and Leon King forming a partnership at points earlier this campaign. Meanwhile. Ianis Hagi is only now getting minutes after spending a year out.

Rangers have built a squad this season that they’ve been unable to fully utilise. No wonder it's been a struggle at points.