Rangers injury blow as January signing set to see specialist after being ruled out of Motherwell clash

On-loan attacker facing spell on sidelines as duo return to squad

Rangers winger Oscar Cortes goes down injured during the midweek win at Kilmarnock. (Photo by Ross MacDonald / SNS Group)

Rangers are waiting to discover the full extent of the injury that has ruled Oscar Cortes out of the Scottish Premiership match against Motherwell this weekend.

There was concern for the 20-year-old winger, who has hit the ground running since joining on loan from Lens in the January window, when he was forced off during the midweek win at Kilmarnock after going down clutching his hamstring around the 70-minute mark.

Rangers manager Philippe Clement revealed that the Colombian will miss Saturday’s encounter with the Steelmen at Ibrox but was unable to put a definitive timeframe on how long he will be without the attacker as he awaits a full diagnosis on the extent of the injury.

“Oscar will be out, I don’t know how long,” Clement confirmed. “We are looking into that with the doctor and specialist. It is a muscle injury, but I cannot say much more at the moment. I don’t want to speak about a half-empty glass. I am focused now on the players who are available for this game, because otherwise I would have lost a lot of energy in the last couple of months and that is useless.

“It is a pity for him and the team, yes, it is an opportunity for another player to show it and to do it, it works like that.”

There was better news for Rangers fans surrounding Tom Lawrence with Clement confirming that the midfielder is “okay” after he was also replaced with 15 minutes remaining at Rugby Park after scoring what proved to be winner. Kemar Roofe will return to the squad after missing the midweek match due to the artificial surface, while Ryan Jack is also available for selection.

Clement reiterated the importance of the squad which was trailing Celtic by seven points when he took over from Michael Beale in October but which now holds a two-point lead at the top of the standings.

He said: “In these four months together, every member of the squad has raised their level. Not only physically, but in every sense, technically and tactically, so they know what to do. In that way it has been really important to work with everybody and not be focused on 11, 14 or 15 players, but on everybody and we will continue like that.”