Rangers Captain Lawrence Shankland Out for Four Months with Injury
Rangers have been dealt a brutal early-season blow with captain Lawrence Shankland ruled out for up to four months with a torn hamstring – and surgery still on the table.
The 31-year-old striker limped off during Saturday’s 1-0 win over Motherwell at Ibrox, a match in which his replacement, Ryan Naderi, grabbed the only goal. By then, Derek McInnes already feared the worst. Now it’s been confirmed.
A familiar injury at the worst possible time
Speaking ahead of Wednesday’s Scottish Premiership meeting with St Mirren, McInnes revealed Shankland has suffered a recurrence of the same hamstring problem that wrecked a chunk of his season at Hearts in January.
"He's had a tear, it's a 2cm tear in his hamstring so similar, very similar to the one he did previously at Hearts in January," the Rangers manager said.
Back then, Shankland missed nine weeks. This time, the prognosis is harsher.
"Best case scenario three months, probably worst-case scenario in terms of time would be about four months."
Shankland is currently in London for further assessment, undergoing an ultrasound and follow-up scan as specialists decide whether to operate or allow the muscle to heal naturally, as it did last time.
"If he has the surgery then he might be an extra three or four weeks but if he has the surgery then it lessens the risk of maybe it happening again," McInnes explained, with a final call expected within the next 48 hours.
Either way, Rangers will be without their captain for a significant stretch of the season. Shankland had started to click in his new surroundings, with four goals in 10 appearances already in a Rangers shirt and three goals in his last two games before the Motherwell setback, including decisive strikes at Aberdeen and Falkirk.
"He was starting to find his stride here and had obviously scored some important goals for us but that is football, unfortunately, the ups and downs of it," McInnes said. "Unfortunately, for us and Lawrence, it's a significant amount of time out and we just need to support him, as we do with all our injured players."
Scotland hit as Nations League campaign looms
The impact stretches beyond Ibrox. Shankland will also miss Scotland’s Nations League campaign this autumn, with fixtures running from late September to mid-November.
New head coach Sebastien Pocognoli takes charge of a group that includes North Macedonia, Slovenia and Switzerland, home and away. Shankland, with seven goals in 22 caps and three of those coming earlier this year, would have been central to those plans. Now Pocognoli must plot without one of his most reliable finishers.
Fixtures piling up, forwards dropping out
For Rangers, the timing could hardly be worse. After St Mirren at Ibrox, McInnes’ side face Celtic twice in quick succession – at home in the League Cup, then away in the Premiership – before the first international break of the season.
October brings five more fixtures, November three, and December a punishing run of six. Shankland will miss the lot.
To compound the problem, fellow striker Youssef Chermiti is already out long term after suffering anterior cruciate ligament damage against Hibernian last month. McInnes is suddenly without both of his primary goalscorers.
"Having [Shankland] and Youssef out, two guys that guarantee you goals at Premiership level, there's no doubt it's a blow for us," he admitted.
The injury list doesn’t stop there. Winger Daisuke Yokota, who came off the bench against Motherwell, will also miss the St Mirren game with a groin issue. There is at least a sliver of good news: left-back Tuur Rommens is back in training and could return later this month.
Naderi, Miovski, Kelsy – opportunity or exposure?
If the cloud is dark, McInnes is trying to find the silver lining. Others now have to carry the load.
"Their disappointment's other people's opportunity as you've seen even from Saturday - Ryan getting his goal, Kevin [Kelsy] getting introduced, we've got Bojan Miovski, who knows his way about the Scottish Premiership, so it's not all doom and gloom on that front but it is disappointing news."
Naderi, who punished a calamitous error from Motherwell goalkeeper Alex Paulsen to roll the ball into an empty net, is the man in possession. McInnes has hinted the powerful forward could soon be called up by the Czech Republic, and his work-rate is not in doubt. The question is whether he can deliver Shankland-type numbers.
So far, the evidence is mixed but not discouraging. Naderi scored three times in 11 games after joining Rangers in January, though two of those came in the 8-0 Scottish Cup demolition of Queen’s Park. This season he has three goals in eight appearances – one fewer than Shankland’s four in 10.
Since arriving at Ibrox, Naderi has averaged a goal every 189 minutes. Shankland, stretching back to the start of last season at Hearts, finds the net every 146 minutes.
Former Rangers midfielder Andy Halliday, speaking on BBC Sportsound, underlined just how much the captain’s absence could be felt in front of goal.
"If Lawrence Shankland was on the pitch throughout, he'd be walking away with a couple of goals," Halliday said of the Motherwell win, where Rangers created enough chances to have won by a far more comfortable margin.
Miovski’s pedigree and Kelsy’s raw edge
Statistically, only one Rangers striker can really live with Shankland’s output: Bojan Miovski. The North Macedonia international averages a goal every 148 minutes, almost identical to the captain’s rate. Yet he has struggled to nail down a consistent starting role since arriving from Aberdeen.
Then there is Kevin Kelsy, the big-money signing from Portland Timbers. He was thrown straight into the action against Motherwell and almost made the perfect start, only to see a golden chance on debut clip the crossbar and fly over. The technique deserted him at the crucial moment.
It would be rash to make sweeping judgements on Kelsy this early. His record of 13 goals in his last 46 games – one every 190 minutes – suggests a forward who contributes but is not a pure penalty-box predator in the Shankland mould.
"It's not an ideal scenario," former Rangers goalkeeper Cammy Bell said on the BBC's Scottish Football Podcast. "They would have wanted to allow a little bit of time for Kelsy to find his feet in Scottish football and at Rangers. He's not going to get that now.
"You'd think Kelsy is going to be the one that will have to step up to the plate and score important goals because you can't rely on Shankland for now."
A season reshaped
Rangers were "good value" for their win over Motherwell, as Halliday put it, but the wastefulness in front of goal was a warning. With Shankland and Chermiti both sidelined, the margin for error shrinks.
McInnes now walks a tightrope: coaxing goals from Naderi, Miovski and Kelsy, managing minutes, and keeping belief high in a dressing room that has just lost its captain and most ruthless finisher.
The fixtures are relentless. The expectations at Ibrox even more so.
The question now is simple and unforgiving: who steps up and turns this from a crisis of personnel into a story of opportunity?
