Rangers star locked away in Auchenhowie treatment room - Keith Jackson

Danilo is stuck under “lock and key” in the Rangers treatment room after his recent injuries, Keith Jackson has said.

The Daily Record journalist wrote via the newspaper’s website (8 October) that, due to the Brazilian’s recent trouble with injuries, Cyriel Dessers has been left to “huff and puff” his way through games alone.

Danilo has been sidelined for most of the 2024/25 season with different issues and is now unlikely to play a full 90 minutes until at least November.

Jackson shared his verdict on the Rangers striker situation writing: “That simply can’t happen when the ball continually bounces off (Dessers’) toes and this clumsiness is probably the main reason why the Rangers fans are constantly on his case, even though he’s weighed in with seven goals over the first few weeks of the season.

“And yet, with Brazilian striker Danillo under lock and key in the treatment room at Auchenhowie and (Hamza) Igamane seemingly not ready to lead the line, it’s left to Dessers to huff and puff his way through one game after the next”.

Rangers need to sort out their striker situation

The Gers have had a topsy-turvy campaign, to be polite, thus far and are still miles off the consistent standard a rightly demanding fanbase expects of this great football club.

With Celtic and Aberdeen perfect through seven games of the season, Philippe Clement’s men find themselves five points off the pace in third and scratching and clawing to ensure they don’t fall too far off the pace.

The Belgian is coming up to a year in the job at Ibrox now and his record has been decidedly mixed, starting well but seeing a title challenge last term crumble badly and losing the Scottish Cup final to Celtic, though he did win the League Cup.

Hamza Igamane was brought in for around £2million in the summer [Football Scotland, 28 June) to help ease the burden on Dessers, though there is a general feeling he is not yet ready to be the starting striker.

The Morocco international has shown signs of promise and it’s evident that there’s a good player in there but his performances are still quite raw.

Of course, the striker is only 21 years old so there’s plenty of time for things to change and for the striker to come into his own, but until then Dessers will shoulder much of the burden with Danilo’s well-documented fitness issues.

As Jackson alluded to, Danilo’s fitness issues makes it difficult for Clement to rely on him as a regularly starter, leaving him with few options up top.

Dessers has a decent goal return but does have a tendency to miss clear-cut chances and ideally you would want more support for the Nigeria international.

In other Rangers news, an injury update has been shared on Oscar Cortes.

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