John Souttar blow for Rangers as defender ruled out until after World Cup

The Scotland centre-back has managed just one competitive appearance for the Ibrox side which came in the win over Livingston on the opening day of the campaign. He was substituted during the second-half of the match and has not played since.

The 26-year-old, who has had endured Achilles issues in the past, suffered a reported ankle injury at Hearts last season which kept him out for several weeks, although he returned before the end of the campaign before making the switch to Rangers in the summer.

Giovanni van Bronckhorst revealed Souttar brought the injury with him from Tynecastle and that, after requiring an operation to fix the problem, he is not expected to return until after the winter break for Qatar 2022.

"With John I think we will expect him after the World Cup – that's still very long-term," the Rangers manager confirmed.

"I have a lot of sympathy for John. He has [the same] problems he had before.

"He brought the problem with him when he changed teams.

"We needed to operate him again so he feels much better now. It is always difficult to play with pain.

John Souttar has not played since making his Rangers debut on the opening day of the season. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

"So for the first time in many months he is pain free now and he can do his rehab.

"Hopefully that is the end of all the difficult times he has had and we can bring him back to full fitness and get him going."

The Dutchman also confirmed that summer signing Tom Lawrence will miss Saturday's trip to Tynecastle to face Hearts as he has not recovered from the knee injury that has kept him sidelined since the end of August.

Striker Kemar Roofe is back in training, however, and getting closer to making his first appearance of the campaign after picking up an injury during pre-season.

"Kemar is now back taking part in big parts of the training so we need to keep assessing him in his load and see when he's back, but hopefully it is sooner rather than later for Kemar himself, and me as a coach," Van Bronckhorst explained.

Former Rangers striker sacked after just eight months in charge