Youssef Chermiti Faces Long Recovery After Serious Injury

Youssef Chermiti’s season has been thrown into doubt after the Rangers striker suffered serious anterior cruciate ligament damage, just hours after the club rejected a sizeable bid for him.

The 22-year-old Portuguese forward crashed into the advertising boards during Sunday’s 2-1 home defeat to Hibernian, following a heavy challenge near the byline. He stayed down, arm raised, signalling distress. Medical staff rushed behind Raphael Sallinger’s goal. There was no sense of drama about it, only dread.

Rangers later confirmed on social media that Chermiti “will be out of action for a significant period of time” – the carefully chosen wording underlining the gravity of the injury.

For a player who arrived at Ibrox from Everton in September 2025 as the club’s most expensive signing since Tore Andre Flo in 2000, the timing could scarcely be crueller. For Derek McInnes, still in the early weeks of his reign, it feels like a gut punch.

A brutal twist after a £22m rejection

The injury came on the same day Rangers turned down what has been reported as a £22m offer for the striker, with Galatasaray widely understood to be the club behind the bid.

At Monday’s shareholders’ meeting, chairman Andrew Cavenagh was pressed on why Chermiti had been risked with such interest swirling around him. His response was pointed.

“Just because someone lobs an unsolicited offer in on one sheet of paper, you don't yank a player from a really important match,” he said.

The club had made its call: reject the offer, back the manager, play the striker. Ninety minutes later, that decision looked far more complicated.

Before kick-off against Hibs, McInnes had been asked about Galatasaray’s interest and made it clear Rangers felt in control of the situation.

“I'm led to believe the club's valuation of the player hasn't been met,” he told BBC Scotland. “It's no surprise that he's a player who's got a big (price) tag on him and he's got high potential, but thankfully he's our player and that will continue to be the case.

“We’re trying to build a team here at the minute and we're trying to still bring additions to the team that helps us add to the good players that we've got, including Youssef. So it's not something we would encourage at any point.”

By full-time, the conversation had shifted from market value to medical reports.

A key pillar ripped out

Chermiti had become central to McInnes’ early plans. Capped at under-21 level by Portugal, the centre forward has made 43 appearances for Rangers, 30 of them starts, scoring 15 goals. He started both of the club’s last two matches, trusted to lead the line while others around him searched for rhythm.

From the main stand at Ibrox, the sight of him collapsing behind the goal was instantly alarming. There was no rolling, no theatrics. Just a player crumpled in a heap, arm raised, knowing something had gone badly wrong.

A cruciate ligament injury is, by definition, serious. The club’s own admission that he will be out for a “significant period” strips away any false hope. This is months, not weeks.

For McInnes, it tears out a focal point at the very moment he is trying to knit a new side together.

Recruitment urgency and attacking questions

Cavenagh has attempted to steady the narrative by confirming that “three to five” new signings are still expected to arrive. That will be welcome news for McInnes, who suddenly has a glaring issue at the top end of the pitch.

• Lawrence Shankland has yet to ignite his Rangers career.
• Ryan Naderi has not convinced as the solution to the team’s shortage of goals.
• Bojan Miovski remains on the books but has not played a competitive minute under the new manager.

Chermiti was the one McInnes trusted. Now he must find goals from a group still feeling their way into the season, and do it quickly.

Because the schedule will not wait. Rangers face Poland’s Jagiellonia Bialystok in Europa League qualifying, a tie that already carried weight for McInnes’ early tenure. The Portuguese forward was supposed to be at the heart of that push.

Instead, he begins a long, lonely road back from a major knee injury, while his manager and chairman are left to wrestle with the most uncomfortable question in football: if they could turn back time on that rejected offer, would they?