John Souttar will miss the next two months after ankle surgery; the defender has only made one appearance for the Ibrox side; Tom Lawrence will also miss the trip to Tynecastle; watch Hearts vs Rangers on Saturday, live on Sky Sports Football; kick-off 12.30pm
Saturday 1 October 2022 17:28, UK
Rangers defender John Souttar has been ruled out until after the World Cup after undergoing surgery.
The 26-year-old Scotland international suffered a reported ankle injury when in action for the Tynecastle club last season which kept him out for several weeks, although he returned before the end of the campaign ahead of the switch to Ibrox in the summer.
Souttar came off in the second half of his Gers debut away to Livingston on July 30 and has not played since.
And ahead of the Scottish Premiership game against Hearts at Tynecastle, live on Sky Sports Football, boss Giovanni van Bronckhorst said: "We will expect John after the World Cup. I have a lot of sympathy for John.
"He brought the problem with him when he changed teams. We needed to operate on him again so he feels much better now.
"It is always difficult to play with pain. It is the first time in many months that he is pain-free and he can do his rehab so hopefully that is the end of all the difficult times he has had, bringing him back to full fitness and getting him going."
Tom Lawrence is also unavailable to Hearts as he continues to recover from a knee problem, but Ben Davies is in the squad while Kemar Roofe has also returned to training.
"All the players who were on international duty are fit to feature. Apart from the players we had back before the break we don't have any other players back. Tom Lawrence is still not available," added the Dutchman.
"Ben Davies is back in the squad. Kemar Roofe is training bit parts of the training sessions now so we need to keep assessing him and see what he is back. Hopefully that's sooner rather than later - both for Kemar and me as a coach."
Celtic dropped three unexpected points against St Mirren in Paisley in their last outing which means a win over Hearts can leapfrog the Gers to the top of the table, albeit with the Hoops hosting Motherwell later in the day.
The Ibrox boss said: "We had some disappointing results, especially against Celtic and two big defeats in the Champions League (Ajax and Napoli).
"The win against Dundee United helped us in the sense of getting back to the three points.
"That's all we can do, just stay focusing on winning our games. We have to continue with that.
"We have a big game tomorrow against Hearts away so we want to continue winning in the league, that is the focus we all have.
"Hearts had a good game against us in the Scottish Cup final a few months ago so I am pleased to see them play in Europe, for Hearts as a club and for Scottish football.
"We always have a tough game away to Hearts but in the last couple of games we had positive outcomes so we have to show the same spirit."
Watch Hearts vs Rangers live on Sky Sports Football on Saturday, kick-off 12.30pm.
