How Steven Gerrard will deal with Rangers rule-breakers George Edmundson and Jordan Jones

Up until now, it hasn’t just been their results on the pitch which have made it such an encouraging start to the 2020-21 season for Rangers.

George Edmundson has his temperature tested as he arrives at Ibrox before Rangers' Premiership match against St Mirren earlier this season. The defender has now been suspended along with team-mate Jordan Jones for breaching the club's Covid-19 protocols at the weekend. (Craig Foy / SNS Group)

Amid the uncertainty caused by the coronavirus crisis, the Ibrox club had also avoided any of the Covid-19 related issues which have impacted other Premiership clubs.

While their greatest rivals Celtic were disrupted by Boli Bolingoli’s inexplicable breach of protocols back in August and Aberdeen suffered for the actions of eight players who went out in the city centre after their defeat to Rangers at Pittodrie the same month, Steven Gerrard’s squad had steered clear of any such controversy.

Which is why the inexcusable conduct of defender George Edmundson and winger Jordan Jones in attending a private gathering with others from outside their own household on Sunday night will have incensed the Rangers manager so much.

Edmundson and Jones have both been suspended while an internal investigation is conducted by the club and must also self-isolate for 14 days. But they are both now likely to be out in the cold for much longer – if not indefinitely – as far as Gerrard is concerned.

The pair were already very much on the fringes of Gerrard’s first team plans in any case. Both were left out of his Europa League group stage squad and were not even among the substitutes for Sunday’s Premiership victory over Kilmarnock at Rugby Park.

Edmundson, well down the pecking order of centre-halves at Rangers, has made just one start this season and last featured at all when he scored an own goal after coming off the bench in the 5-1 win at Motherwell at the end of September.

That game at Fir Park had looked like the day when Jones re-ignited his Rangers career. The Northern Ireland international shone in his first starting appearances for eight months and scored his first goal for the club since his arrival from Kilmarnock in the summer of 2019.

But Jones has failed to build on the impact of that display and will now be fortunate to get another opportunity to do so under Gerrard. Both he and Edmundson are under contract until 2023 but it would be no surprise now if Rangers look to move them on in January.

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