Philippe Clement defends injury record as depleted Rangers face Dundee

Philippe Clement has defended his injury record at Rangers as he surveyed his depleted squad ahead of the game against Dundee on Thursday night.

When the Belgian took over as Gers boss in October 2023, he vowed to improve the fitness and availability of the squad which he inherited from previous manager Michael Beale.

However, currently Rangers are again short in numbers and particularly bare in the defensive options ahead of the trip to Tayside.

Skipper James Tavernier remains on the sidelines beside John Souttar (groin) and Neraysho Kasanwirjo (knee), Jack Butland (leg) and Leon Balogun, while midfielder Tom Lawrence is still out.

Utility player Dujon Sterling is a doubt after sustaining a knock in the 3-3 draw with Hibernian at the weekend which ultimately left the Light Blues 13 points behind William Hill Premiership leaders Celtic.

“It’s a totally different situation,” said Clement, who will also be without suspended midfielder Nicolas Raskin for the game against Tony Docherty’s side.

“Last season, we had in big spells, 10/12, players out.

“Now we have four for sure. OK, Jack also, but that’s an accident. It’s not really an injury. It’s a contact injury. And some of the others are also contact injuries. that’s part of football.

“The difficult thing is, it’s all in one position.

“So that’s a difficulty for every club in the world. You cannot predict that and it is not possible to have seven centre backs in your squad.

“So we never been in a situation this season that we have had 12 injuries at the same time and the club also worked really hard to strengthen some departments.

“So we got a really good physio from Aberdeen with Kevin (Bain), which we made changes in the performance department.

“So there are really good steps made in that way, so we cannot compare with the situation that was last season.

“It’s about finding solutions and that’s what we’ve been doing in the last couple of weeks.

“For example, putting Ridvan Yilmaz at right full-back and him doing a really good job there.

“So we need to be creative, to have the good level with the defence and not to concede the goals that we conceded against Hibs on the two set pieces.

“I need to make choices around that, also towards this game, because it’s also one of the strengths of Dundee.”