Rangers star Michael Beale hailed as 'outstanding', key man in Champions League fitness race, Nico Raskin update

Rangers boss Michael Beale has revealed Connor Goldson faces a race against time to be fit for the start of next season.

Rangers boss Michael Beale shouts instructions to his players during the win over Hibs at Easter Road. (Photo by Alan Harvey / SNS Group)

The centre-back, who missed the teams 3-1 win over Hibs at Easter Road, has a foot injury which will require him to stay off it for six weeks before undergoing a “modified” pre-season. The new league campaign gets under way on August 5, while Rangers will be in Champions League third round qualifying action on August 8 or 9. Beale confirmed he could be touch and go for such a pivotal fixture but noted the club will look to “strengthen every area this summer”.

"He’ll be out for about ten weeks,” Beale said. “He had a funny land on his foot with a couple of minutes to go last week. He wanted to play on. Afterwards, we’ve had it scanned and seen a specialist so he’ll probably be about six weeks where he’s got to try and stay off it and then a four-week, five-week rehab back into the start of next season. All going well, he’ll be available for the first game of next season, albeit he might have a slightly modified pre-season compared to the others.

"This season seems to have been the worst season ever for the club, or certainly in my times associated with the club. Hopefully, that’s out of the way and next season we get a clean bill of health.”

Rangers were without a raft of players for the trip to Leith with Alfredo Morelos, Glen Kamara and Scott Wright late absentees. Beale expressed his delight at the squad depth, describing John Souttar’s performance as “outstanding”.

“The fact we had Goldson, Davies, Barisic and Helander out of the back four, go into the midfield and Steven Davis, [Tom] Lawrence, then [Kemar] Roofe, [Ryan] Kent, [Malik] Tillman, Morelos, [Antonio] Colak,” Beale said. “So that we were able to put out a team like we did today shows that we have strength in depth in this squad. I thought the performance we put in against a good Hibs team was excellent.”

Beale also confirmed that Nico Raskin is "fine” after being replaced with a knock. “It was a strange one – a clash of knees - and I just think it’s touched a bit of a nerve," he said.