Rangers forward Abdallah Sima out for up to three months after thigh surgery

Rangers forward Abdallah Sima will be out for “between two and three months” after having an operation on a thigh injury.

The 22-year-old Senegal international, who has scored 15 goals since arriving on loan from Brighton in the summer, was sent home from the Africa Cup of Nations after picking up the injury in training.

Ahead of Wednesday’s win at Easter Road, Phillipe Clement said: “The surgery went well, it will be between two and three months that he will be out.

“We have had discussions with Brighton (regarding if Sima will stay at the club while injured).

“He has had his operation and the surgeon was really happy with the way it went.

“He is positive, he is someone who is always working hard and we expect him to be back as fast as possible in a healthy way and we can count on him at the end of the season.”

Rangers won 3-0 in the capital to cut the gap at the top of the Premiership to five points with goals from Ridvan Yilmaz, Todd Cantwell and Cyriel Dessers.

Keeper Jack Butland chipped in with some crucial saves and loan signing Fabio Silva made his first start since joining the club at the beginning of January.

Afterwards the manager spoke in glowing terms about his squad and says he is happy to now have a selection headache.

He said: “It is about everybody.

“To be honest, after a game like this, I don’t even remember who scored the goals because for me it is not important who scores.

“It’s scoring as a team and it is the same with Jack. He makes the saves because the other guys will get red cards if they make saves with their hands.

“But, for example, John (Souttar) also made a really good save with his chest. It’s a team effort. That’s what we wanted to create a few months ago. To see a team all the time on the pitch and the guys are doing that now.

“I hope also after several victories they keep on understanding where it is coming from. It is not falling out of the sky.

“It is about a lot of effort, a lot of solidarity and not having too big an ego to play for yourself.

“So I am going to be really strict on that and to look at the team and making team decisions.

“I told them after training yesterday [Tuesday] they give me quite a headache for the moment to pick a starting 11.

“But it is a good thing. I hope they give me a lot of headaches the next couple of months.”

Hibs boss Nick Montgomery was left ruing some missed opportunities.

He said: “Myziane (Maolida) has a chance from six yards and it’s a top save from the goalkeeper.

“Those are the moments that change games. If that goes in it’s 2-1 the crowd lifts and I’m pretty sure we could have got back into the game. We would have been right in the ascendency.

“If you don’t take your chances you are going to start chasing the game and you can’t do that against a team like Rangers.”