Helander and Flanagan drop out of Rangers Europa League squad

Rangers and Celtic have finalised their squad for the remainder of the Europa League with players dropped to make way for January signings.

The Glasgow sides have both reached the last 32 of the competition and had to submit updated squad lists by midnight on Monday. Teams are permitted to add up to three new players to their European squad, provided the group still meets UEFA’s quota’s for home-grown players.

Rangers have drawn Braga in the last 32, with Celtic to face FC Copenhagen but there are no further changes allowed to be made to the squad no matter how far the sides progress.

Rangers brought in Romanian midfielder Ianis Hagi and Swiss forward Florian Kamberi in January and both have been added to the squad, along with American full-back Matt Polster after the defender forced his way into first team reckoning.

Andy King, who returned to Leicester City after his loan was terminated, was the only player from the existing European squad to leave the club so Steven Gerrard and his coaching team had a decision to make about which players would miss out. Filip Helander is sidelined with a foot injury that Gerrard says will rule him out for “four to five weeks” and has been taken out of the squad.

The other player to make way is full-back Jon Flanagan.

Celtic also had a decision to make as they added Patryk Klimala and Ismaila Soro, as well as summer signing Jeremie Frimpong.

Neil Lennon’s decision was made easier with Lewis Morgan and Scott Sinclair having left the club in January but he had one space to clear, opting to remove Ukrainian winger Maryan Shved. The Celtic boss revealed on Tuesday that Shved was struggling with language since moving to club last year and was “still a bit behind” other players in the squad.

Both sides play the first leg of their Europa League ties on February 20.