Major injury blow for Rangers with Neraysho Kasanwirjo out for up to six months

Rangers boss Philippe Clement has revealed Neraysho Kasanwirjo could be out for the rest of the season following knee surgery.

The 22-year-old on-loan Feyenoord defender, known as ‘Nana’, suffered the injury playing for the Netherlands Under-21s against England and has missed the last three Light Blues fixtures.

Following the 1-0 William Hill Premiership win over St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park, Clement said: “Nana’s operation was good, but he will be at least out for four to six months.

“So we cannot count on him, so we will see at the end of the season how things go.

“We have the agreement with Feyenoord that he will do his rehab there, but I stay in touch with Nana, who was really disappointed not to continue the work he’s been doing, because he loves the club, he loves the dressing room, even loves the staff – that doesn’t happen so much.

“So we will see at the end of the season how it will be with him, but we cannot count on him in the next couple of months.”

Dujon Sterling missed the win over St Johnstone and with a view to the home game against Kilmarnock on Wednesday night, the Belgian said: “Dujon is unlucky, because it’s not a real injury.

“It’s a blocked nerve, so he has to see a specialist to unblock it, to get treatment and because of that, he was not available today.

“We will see if he’s available on Wednesday or not. It’s not a long-term thing, but those things happen.”

Rangers travelled to Perth on the back of a stunning 4-1 Europa League win at Nice on Thursday night which took them a step closer to qualification to the knockout stages but yet again there was a drop in performance in the league.

Clement, however, claimed Josh Rae’s performance prevented the Light Blues racking up a more impressive scoreline.

The Saints keeper made several saves before and after an own goal in the 63rd minute by former Rangers midfielder Jason Holt.

Clement said: “It was a good performance today, only thing we missed is to score the second, third or fourth goal to finish off the game earlier and to kill the belief with the opponent, which we did well against Nice.

“But we have to say also, there was a really good goalkeeper on the other side.

“It’s a little bit annoying because it’s a few weeks that I have had to repeat that.

“But that’s part of football that apparently goalkeepers against us, they play the game of their season, and that was the case because there were a few really good finishes and actions but he kept his team in the game.”

St Johnstone boss Simo Valakari claimed his side played with “maximum” hearts and soul but came up just short.

He said: “Of course, the result is not what we wanted. It was a little bit of where we are with our team at this moment.

“There were a lot of promising moments, there was a lot of heart and soul – there was the maximum heart and soul there.

“But then some moments, the decision making, the final ball – maybe the calmness in the final passes – it’s not there yet.

“But that’s pretty logical. We wanted to stay in this match and give us a chance to compete until the end and we did it.

“But we were a little bit out of energy to push this final five minutes and it was pretty easy for Rangers to defend their lead.

“We all know, the players as well, what we need to improve. And that’s what we are working on so hard every day.”