Andy Halliday reacts to John Souttar news away from Rangers

John Souttar being left out of Scotland’s final squad for EURO2024 was due to him being injured “at a real key time”, according to former Rangers midfielder Andy Halliday.

Speaking to Sky Sports, Halliday said that the competition for places in central defence, coupled with a late-season injury, put paid to his chances of making it to Germany this summer.

The 32-year-old, who left Ibrox in 2020, added that Souttar and Leeds United captain Liam Cooper were likely to be competing against one another for a place in the squad, with the latter winning the race.

In quotes reported by Glasgow World, Halliday said “I think that (Souttar) decision was probably a bit more difficult for Steve Clarke.

“Looking at the 28-man squad there is seven, eight boys who can play centre-half in there.

“You always felt the likes of Souttar and Liam Cooper, these types of guys were going against each other; with John’s injury coming at a real key time in the season.”

Rangers watch John Souttar snub after new update

Only one player with Ibrox connections features in Steve Clarke’s final 26-man squad for this tournament, and it’s someone who has rarely featured in the past few months in the form of Ryan Jack.

While Scotland have a plethora of options in central defence – hence Souttar’s exclusion – the depth is less secure in midfield, and thus Jack has been selected as an additional option after his release.

Robby McCrorie, restricted to playing just one match in the Scottish Cup, is one player who has fallen well down the international goalkeeping pecking order – fuelling reports that an Ibrox exit for the 26-year-old is imminent [Rangers Review].

Scott Wright is another yet to make his full Scotland debut, but despite playing 33 times this season, he only started 10 times, and being a squad player at Ibrox is doing his international chances no favours.

Souttar was a much more consistent figure in the starting XI, but the injuries mentioned by Halliday, unfortunately, came at a crucial time for him – coinciding with a massive loss of form which saw Rangers’ title hopes and his EURO 2024 hopes both go up in smoke.

In other Rangers news, Fabio Silva’s father has revealed that his son could have moved to Celtic instead of Ibrox in January

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