David Edgar details Rangers stance on signing free agent striker after crushing Shankland news
Rangers will not be entering the free agent market for a replacement striker despite the worsening severity of Lawrence Shankland’s hamstring injury, according to Heart & Hand Podcast owner David Edgar — a stance that runs directly counter to the wave of free-agent suggestions being floated across Scottish football media in the wake
Shankland was forced off after just five minutes of Rangers’ 1-0 win over Motherwell at the weekend, with a scan subsequently confirming a grade 2c hamstring tear — the same specific injury he suffered while at Hearts in January, an issue that kept him sidelined for a lengthy period at the time. Derek McInnes confirmed the diagnosis directly: “We’ve had confirmation he has had a grade 2c tear in his hamstring, very similar to the one he did at Hearts in January. He is now getting a follow-up scan with a specialist in London to determine if he has surgery or allows it to heal naturally.”
That decision on surgery carries real weight for the timeline involved. McInnes explained the trade-off facing the club and player: “If he has the surgery it may be three or four weeks less, but maybe that increases the risk again.” Initial expectations had Shankland out for around three months, but McInnes has since indicated the injury “looks quite significant” and could realistically keep the captain sidelined for up to four months — a period that could see him miss as many as 20 matches, and puts a return date somewhere around the end of November at
With the transfer window now closed, any incoming reinforcement would have to come from outside the contracted pool of players — either a free agent with no current club, or someone plucked from a league whose own window remains open. Asked directly on X whether Rangers might move for a free agent to cover the gap left by Shankland, Edgar shut the suggestion down without hesitation: “No. We have three.”
His reasoning centres on Rangers’ existing squad depth at centre-forward, even accounting for the two injured strikers. Even with both Youssef Chermiti — sidelined long-term with a serious ACL injury — and now Shankland unavailable, Rangers still have three senior forwards on the books: Kevin Kelsy, the club’s deadline-day signing from Portland Timbers; Bojan Miovski; and Ryan Naderi, who deputised for Shankland against Motherwell and scored the winner in the process. Edgar’s logic is that adding a fourth free-agent striker into that mix would only complicate squad management further down the line, particularly with Chermiti eventually due to return and want regular game time himself once fit, and with Kelsy — signed for significant money over the summer — needing minutes to justify his fee and settle into Scottish football. With McInnes committed to a one-striker formation supported by a number 10, having three recognised options competing for that single role is, in Edgar’s assessment, already the right balance without
Edgar’s stance hasn’t gone unchallenged elsewhere in the media landscape covering the story. Several outlets have continued to speculate about specific free agent options Rangers could theoretically pursue, reflecting a broader appetite among some pundits and reporters for the club to strengthen further given the scale of their attacking injury list. Suggestions have ranged from experienced Premier League-tested forwards to specialists from mainland Europe and Saudi Arabia’s top flight, with names like Jordan Ayew — the 34-year-old Ghana international capped 122 times, who contributed nine goals and assists in the Premier League last season for a struggling Leicester City side — among the more prominently floated candidates given his continued availability on a free transfer and his versatility across multiple forward positions. Other reported names include experienced English top-flight forwards, a well-travelled Eredivisie striker with recent Saudi First Division success, and a mobile, non-poacher profile designed to complement rather than directly replace Shankland’s
With Shankland now facing an extended absence, attention has understandably shifted toward how McInnes deploys his remaining options — and Kevin Kelsy in particular is facing pressure to adapt quickly. Former Rangers goalkeeper Cammy Bell, speaking on BBC’s Scottish Football Podcast, acknowledged the awkward timing: McInnes would ideally have preferred to give the 22-year-old more time to settle into Scottish football before being thrust into a leading attacking role, but circumstances — Shankland’s injury arriving just as he’d found scoring form with two goals in a 2-1 win at Falkirk — have accelerated that timeline considerably. Bell expects Kelsy to become Rangers’ primary source of goals in Shankland’s absence, while suggesting Naderi’s role could shift toward an impact substitute, bringing fresh legs and pressing intensity in the final third of matches to protect the younger Kelsy from carrying the full physical burden across every fixture.
The timing of Shankland’s setback is particularly unwelcome given what’s immediately ahead for Rangers. McInnes must reshape his forward line for Wednesday’s clash with St Mirren at Ibrox, all while navigating preparations for back-to-back derbies against Celtic in the weeks that follow — fixtures that will carry even greater significance given the season’s turbulent start. With Chermiti already out long-term and now Shankland facing a similarly extended lay-off, Rangers’ attacking options have been reduced to precisely the three players Edgar referenced: Kelsy, Miovski, and Naderi, an unusually thin margin for a club navigating one of the more demanding stretches of its fixture calendar so far this season.
Edgar’s “No. We have three” stance reflects a broader philosophy that seems to be guiding Rangers’ current approach to squad management: rather than reflexively reaching for a free-agent panic signing every time an injury bites, the club appears content to trust the depth it already assembled across an extraordinarily busy summer window, even if that depth is now being tested more severely than anyone at Ibrox would have anticipated just a few weeks ago. Whether that faith proves well-placed will likely become clear across the coming month, as Kelsy, Naderi and Miovski are asked to shoulder a significantly heavier attacking burden than originally envisaged — with the games against St Mirren and, in particular, the two meetings with Celtic offering an early and unforgiving test of whether “three” really is enough.
