Rangers left surprised by Alex Lowry injury after Hearts return - 'really difficult to put him on loan'

The playmaker’s time at Tynecastle was cut short and now his prospects of going out again have slimmed due to condition

Philippe Clement was left surprised that Alex Lowry returned from his loan spell at Hearts with an injury which will keep the Rangers youngster out for six to eight weeks.

The 20-year-old’s time at Tynecastle was cut short by the Gorgie club after 17 appearances and the Gers boss last week said he was looking to put the midfielder out on loan again. Clement was informed about the unspecified injury by Hearts “but not that it was this severe” and ahead of the cinch Premiership game against St Mirren in Paisley on Saturday, he clarified Lowry’s situation.

“I said that Alex Lowry came back and our idea was to put him on loan because it is important for him to get playing minutes like he got at Hearts but he came back with an injury that we didn’t know,” said Clement, who declared himself “delighted” that the signing of midfielder Mohamed Diomande from FC Nordsjaelland was confirmed earlier in the day. “So he will be out for the next six to eight weeks and it is going to be really difficult to put him on loan.

Alex Lowry is back at Ibrox after spending the first half of the season at Hearts.

“It was a surprising story for myself to get this information now and not before because I didn’t give you guys the right information last week. It is not something that will damage his career but he will be out for six to eight weeks. It is an important year for him. He made some good steps, he is a talented player and it was an interesting thing to go there (Hearts), so we are all disappointed for Alex and for ourselves because it was the ideal scenario to let him play (on loan) for one year then make a good assessment. Now that is going to be difficult and with the squad we have at the moment, it is going to be difficult to give him minutes here.”

Diomande has signed on a loan deal until the end of the season with an obligation for the Ibrox club to buy in the summer for an undisclosed fee, widely reported as being around £4.3million. He will arrive in Glasgow once his work permit application has been confirmed and the deal, which runs to 2028, is subject to international clearance. The 22-year-old Ivorian becomes Rangers’ second signing of the January transfer following the arrival of Fabio Silva on loan from Wolves earlier this month.

The signing represents the start of new transfer model the Belgian boss is trying to implement at Rangers. He said: “It is clear that almost every club in the world is busy getting players in that have the potential to grow, become better and at one moment, to sell them. We don’t have an investor who puts crazy money into the club every year so you need to build a model to get value out of the players you bring in our come out of your academy and to do intelligent moves at the right time. That needs to be the model for the next couple of years and not let players get out of contract, which we talked about in the past.

“It is important that the club earns money from transfers and can grow in the future. Everybody is really pleased. He is one of the biggest prospects in Scandinavia and a lot of teams were interested in him. It is not easy to get a player to Rangers from there because there is a lot of competition but he was really interested in the project. It is a signing for the short term and for the long term and that is not easy to do in January. So I am delighted.”