Rangers Captain Lawrence Shankland Faces Four Months Out with Injury
Rangers have been dealt a brutal early-season blow, with captain Lawrence Shankland facing up to four months out after tearing his hamstring.
Manager Derek McInnes confirmed the 31-year-old has suffered a recurrence of the same injury the pair endured together at Hearts last season, when Shankland missed nine weeks. This time, the damage is a 2cm tear – and the clock on Rangers’ season has started ticking without their main marksman.
“He’s had a tear, it’s a 2cm tear in his hamstring, very similar to the one he did previously at Hearts in January,” McInnes said before Wednesday’s Scottish Premiership meeting with St Mirren.
Shankland is currently in London undergoing an ultrasound and follow-up scan as specialists decide whether surgery is required. If he goes under the knife, the recovery time stretches by another three or four weeks, but with the potential benefit of reducing the risk of a third breakdown.
For now, Rangers must plan without the man who had just begun to look fully at home in an Ibrox shirt.
A captain cut down in stride
Shankland has four goals in 10 Rangers appearances this season and was starting to carry himself like the leader McInnes wanted at the top end of the pitch. He limped off early in Saturday’s 1-0 home win over Motherwell, replaced by Ryan Naderi, who pounced on a blunder from goalkeeper Alex Paulsen to roll in the only goal.
“Unfortunately, for us and Lawrence, it’s a significant amount of time out and we just need to support him,” McInnes said. “He was starting to find his stride here and had obviously scored some important goals for us but that is football, unfortunately, the ups and downs of it.
“Best case scenario three months, probably worst-case scenario in terms of time would be about four months.”
The timing could hardly be worse. Shankland had hit three goals in his previous two games – decisive strikes in wins at Aberdeen and Falkirk – before his hamstring went against Motherwell. Just as his season threatened to catch fire, it’s been doused.
His absence stretches beyond club duty. Shankland will miss Scotland’s Nations League campaign this autumn, with fixtures running from late September to mid-November. New head coach Sebastien Pocognoli’s side face North Macedonia, Slovenia and Switzerland home and away. Shankland, who has seven goals in 22 caps and three of those this year, will be watching from the treatment room.
Fixture storm without a focal point
Rangers now face a demanding run with their captain sidelined. After St Mirren at Ibrox, McInnes’ team host Celtic in the League Cup, then travel to Celtic Park in the league before the first international break of the season.
October brings five games, November three, December six. It is a schedule that usually leans heavily on a reliable No 9. Rangers will have to navigate it without two.
Shankland’s injury comes on top of a long-term blow to fellow striker Youssef Chermiti, who suffered anterior cruciate ligament damage against Hibernian last month. McInnes is suddenly without both of his Premiership-proven finishers.
“Having [Shankland] and Youssef out, two guys that guarantee you goals at Premiership level, there’s no doubt it’s a blow for us,” the Rangers manager admitted.
Winger Daisuke Yokota, who came off the bench against Motherwell, will also miss the St Mirren game with a groin problem. There is at least one positive: left-back Tuur Rommens is back in training and could return later this month.
Naderi, Miovski, Kelsy – opportunity and pressure
The pressure now shifts to those left standing.
“Their disappointment’s other people’s opportunity as you’ve seen even from Saturday – Ryan getting his goal, Kevin [Kelsy] getting introduced, we’ve got Bojan Miovski, who knows his way about the Scottish Premiership, so it’s not all doom and gloom on that front but it is disappointing news,” McInnes said.
Naderi’s numbers hint at a willing deputy but not yet a ruthless one. Since joining Rangers in January, he has six goals in 19 appearances – three in 11 last season, three in 8 this term. Two of last season’s strikes came in the 8-0 Scottish Cup demolition of Queen’s Park, a game that told little about life at the sharp end of the Premiership.
Right now, his return stands at a goal every 189 minutes for Rangers. Shankland, stretching back to the start of last season at Hearts and into his Ibrox spell, sits at a goal every 146 minutes. That gap is the difference between a good option and a guaranteed scorer.
Former Rangers midfielder Andy Halliday, speaking on BBC Sportsound, underlined what Shankland’s presence means in tight games like the Motherwell win.
“If Lawrence Shankland was on the pitch throughout, he’d be walking away with a couple of goals,” Halliday said, reflecting on a match Rangers dominated but failed to put to bed.
Bojan Miovski is the only striker on Rangers’ books whose stats stand up to Shankland’s. The North Macedonia international averages a goal every 148 minutes, but he has struggled for a consistent run in the side. If McInnes wants a like-for-like level of penalty-box threat, Miovski’s case is strong. The question is whether he now becomes undroppable.
Then there is Kevin Kelsy, the big-money arrival from Portland Timbers. He had the perfect chance to announce himself on debut against Motherwell, only to clip the crossbar when clean through and show a lack of composure that betrayed a player still feeling his way into a new league.
The raw numbers suggest he is not a pure poacher. Thirteen goals in his past 46 games – roughly one every 190 minutes – point to a forward who can contribute, but not necessarily one who lives off goals alone.
“It’s not an ideal scenario,” former Rangers goalkeeper Cammy Bell said on the BBC’s Scottish Football Podcast. “They would have wanted to allow a little bit of time for Kelsy to find his feet in Scottish football and at Rangers. He’s not going to get that now.
“You’d think Kelsy is going to be the one that will have to step up to the plate and score important goals because you can’t rely on Shankland for now.”
A season reshaped
Rangers were “good value” for their win over Motherwell, as the cliché goes, but the volume of chances they passed up was a warning. With Shankland on the pitch, those missed opportunities look less likely. Without him, every one of them will be scrutinised.
McInnes must now juggle minutes, manage confidence and hope that one of Naderi, Miovski or Kelsy catches fire. The margins at the top of the Scottish Premiership are rarely generous. With Celtic looming twice in quick succession and a packed autumn schedule, Rangers’ season may hinge on how quickly a new talisman emerges from the shadows left by their stricken captain.
