Ryan Jack, the Rangers midfielder who has been sidelined with a calf injury since the 4-1 win over Dundee United three weeks ago, won’t feature for the Ibrox club in the Europa League last 16 game against Slavia Prague in the Czech Republic this evening.
But the Scotland internationalist is available for selection for the first leg game in the Sinobo Stadium for the first time since suffering his knock.
So why hasn't his manager Steven Gerrard - who could have £4.5m signing Kemar Roofe in his squad, possibly even hs starting line-up, in the first leg match after the English striker returned to training after recovering from the same problem - considered him for the outing?
“Jacko, if I wanted him to be ready he could be," said Gerrard. "But I've decided to just hold back on him. He'll be available for the second leg, but I don't think it's right to push Ryan.
“He has had a bit of a different injury this time. Last time we probably pushed it a little bit too quick.
“I have decided, rather than the medical team, to just hold fire on that. It's a difficult decision, but I think it's the right one in the big picture.
“Obviously James (captain and right back Tavernier, who has a knee injury) is going to be a little bit slower.”
He added: “The players have certainly been on an all mighty high. It was a superb performance against St Mirren (Rangers won 3-0 in a Premiership match at Ibrox on Saturday), a really strong performance that we played in style.
“You get a different view of that from up in the directors box, but it was an extremely strong performance and that was on the back of a big performance away at Livingston where we had to win in a different way. So it's a really fascinating set of fixtures coming up.
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“We've spoken about it and discussed it at length yesterday. It will be really interesting to see what performance we can find.
“They trained well yesterday, they were hungry, they were focused. We've got the game plan ready for tomorrow. It's a game we're all looking forward to.”
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