Less than a month into the job Philippe Clement has carried out an amazing attack on the Ibrox medical staff while doubting the commitment of players to turn out twice a week.
There was no real probing question put to the former Monaco boss when he was asked about how close Danilo is to being able to play a full 90 minutes. Returning from injury the £6m Brazilian has came off the bench in the last three matches wearing a face mask.
During season 21/22 the Ibrox players demonstrated incredible levels of fitness although Aaron Ramsey was a case too far for the medics.
On two occasions late in the season Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side played extra-time in midweek and were out-running their opponents at the weekend in extra-time in Scottish Cup ties.
Over the last two seasons there appears to be half a dozen players unavailable for selection, led by Kemar Roofe who is one of the highest paid players at the club.
Asked about Danilo, Clement suddenly opened up on a number of issues causing him concern:
It’s a good question. We will see tomorrow. He is ready to play but we will see what is important in this game and if it is necessary that he starts or that he comes in. It depends on the opponent, but he is not ready for 90 minutes which is logical – but yeah, that is the difficulty for the moment. It’s quite a puzzle.
It is the biggest puzzle I ever saw with all the injuries and players out. I need to say one thing more, John Souttar will also not be available with a muscle problem. Not a big one but still not available for the game.
We have started with a lot of players not available and some players falling out in the last couple of weeks, so it will be very important for every game to manage every minute of every player, their condition and their robustness in the next couple of months to have a bigger squad available.
Later he was asked if he could identify the source of the injury issues, replying with:
Yes but not for you guys. That is something that we are dealing with within the club.
Clement had revealed that Nico Raskin and John Souttar wouldn’t be available for tomorrow’s match at Dundee. The Belgian was injured sending a shot over the bar while Souttar never got off the bench.
Tom Lawrence and Rabbi Matondo have been out injured for a couple of weeks while Borna Barisic picked up a thigh injury 10 minutes into Clement’s first match following back-to-back appearances for Croatia.
Straight after taking charge the new boss questioned the type of training sessions being put on by Micky Beale, previously referred to as a wizard of the training ground.
Having openly doubted a number of issues within the club the pressure is now firmly on Clement to come up with solutions rather than flagging up excuses for not having a fully fit squad.
