Steven Gerrard says standard of Rangers' training has 'gone through the roof' as he insists Covid-19 breaches won't derail Europa League challenge

Rangers manager Steven Gerrard insists his preparations for the Europa League tie against Antwerp in Belgium have not been adversely affected by the Ibrox club having to deal with a breach of Covid-19 regulations by five of his players.

Rangers manager Steven Gerrard at Glasgow Airport on Wednesday afternoon as his team travelled to Belgium for the first leg of their Europa League last 32 tie against Royal Antwerp on Thursday night. (Photo by Ross MacDonald / SNS Group)

Bongani Zungu, Nathan Patterson, Calvin Bassey, Brian Kinnear and Dapo Mebude all face disciplinary action from both Rangers and the Scottish FA after attending a house party in Glasgow last weekend.

The quintet, all of whom apart from Mebude are registered in Rangers’ Europa League squad, are now self-isolating.

Gerrard has expressed his personal disappointment in the actions of the players but despite the furore surrounding the situation, he believes his squad are more ready than ever to shine against Antwerp as Rangers bid to reach the last 16 of the tournament.

“We’ve had no disruption on the inside this week in terms of our preparation on the training pitch,” said Gerrard.

“We’ve had decent numbers, even though they have changed (in terms of) the three or four who are normally training with us on a daily basis.

“But it hasn’t had any disruption in terms of our preparation. We’ve still had quality and numbers.

“We are fine, we will manage. It’s not ideal, that’s for sure. But what we have got is players with us at the moment who have got no ego. They will, if needed, sacrifice themselves to do a job for the team and the group. We will manage, we will cope and we will go from there.

“All the players are in a really good place. I must say the standard of the training has been fantastic.

“We have taken some of the younger players away from the group and we’ve obviously had the situation this week where the group has been shortened down through no fault of our own in terms of the players still involved.

“I can see a twinkle in the boys’ eyes, they are really ready to go. If training is anything to go by, we are about to put in a performance. The level, intensity and quality has gone through the roof. So we are going into it really excited and looking forward to watching the players play."

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.