Rangers star could now miss Celtic clash as McInnes dealt another injury worry
Good news is this pulled up two distinct, genuinely current stories — worth being clear on which one your headline matches, since they’re different players.
Rangers have been handed a fresh fitness worry just days before Sunday’s Premier Sports Cup quarter-final against Celtic, with winger Daisuke Yokota now managing a groin injury that threatens his involvement in both Wednesday’s rearranged league fixture against St Mirren and the huge Old Firm tie that follows.
Derek McInnes confirmed the news directly to reporters: “Yokota is struggling with a groin injury. He’s getting scanned this morning, and we expect him to miss tomorrow night. Depending on the outcome of that scan we’ll see whether he misses the weekend as well. Other than that, I think we’re good to go.” The 26-year-old only joined Rangers from Hannover 96 in August, for an initial £2.75 million on a three-year deal with an option for a further season, and has quickly established himself as a regular on the right of McInnes’s attack — making his potential absence a genuine blow given how thin Rangers’ attacking options already are.
That thinness is really the crux of the concern. Yokota’s issue lands directly on top of Rangers’ far more significant injury story of the week: captain Lawrence Shankland suffering what looks like a serious hamstring tear during Saturday’s 1-0 win over Motherwell, an injury McInnes described as “quite significant” and similar to one that kept Shankland out for over two months during his time at Hearts. Combined with Youssef Chermiti’s long-term ACL injury from August, Rangers could now be facing the Celtic double-header — Sunday’s cup quarter-final and the Premiership meeting at Parkhead the following weekend — without their captain, their top summer signing up front, and potentially their in-form new winger, leaving an attack already stretched thin even thinner for the biggest fixtures of the season so far.
There is some reason for optimism elsewhere in the squad, though. Kevin Kelsy made his debut in the Motherwell win after his protracted move from Portland Timbers finally completed, and McInnes pointed to a squad that, for all its absentees, still has options: “We’ve got good options. The squad’s strong. I think the introduction of Kim [Min-su] to the team has helped us, and I think all of a sudden we look as if there’s goals in us. We look as if we’re creating chances, and you can start to see the team kind of develop a wee bit. So we’re going to have to look at different options at the top end of the pitch, but it’s options we have got, thankfully.” On Kelsy specifically, he added: “Kevin was such a good bit of business.”
Rangers head into the St Mirren match on the back of three straight one-goal Premiership wins — over Aberdeen, Falkirk and Motherwell — level on 10 points with St Mirren after five games, with the sides sitting third and fourth respectively. A win would move Rangers above St Mirren into third. St Mirren themselves arrive with real confidence, having led Celtic before eventually losing 2-1 at the weekend, though Rangers have the psychological edge of a 5-1 win over the same opponents in the League Cup last month
There’s also an unresolved managerial subplot hanging over the Celtic games specifically. McInnes is awaiting the outcome of an SFA disciplinary appeal — stemming from comments he made about a Celtic match during his time at Hearts — with a hearing having taken place on 31 August. Should the appeal be rejected, McInnes could be barred from the touchline for Rangers’ next three domestic fixtures: away to Falkirk, at home to Motherwell, and the Celtic cup tie itself, forcing him to delegate touchline duties for what would be his first competitive meeting with Celtic as Rangers manager. He would, however, still be able to manage the return league fixture at Parkhead a week later, since that match falls outside the suspension window regardless of the appeal’s outcome.
Taken together, Rangers head into one of the most consequential weeks of their season carrying genuine uncertainty on multiple fronts — a make-or-break St Mirren match, a captain facing a potentially lengthy spell out, a promising new winger now a doubt, and a manager who may not even be permitted in the dugout for the Celtic cup tie depending on how his appeal is resolved.
