When a Rangers star is suddenly missing from the matchday squad, the rumor mill starts before the team sheet has finished loading. This week was no different. One name vanished, a few cryptic posts appeared, and supporters were trading theories within hours.
So what do we actually know? The injury list is the confirmed part. Rangers are without José Cifuentes with a knee injury, Youssef Chermiti with a cruciate ligament tear, Daisuke Yokota after groin surgery, Lawrence Shankland with a hamstring problem, and John Souttar with an unspecified injury. Ross McCrorie has also picked up a hamstring injury, though it isn’t thought to be as serious as Shankland’s. On top of that, manager Derek McInnes confirmed a sickness bug has affected around half a dozen players. [Rangers vs St. Johnstone preview, team news and prediction +2](https://dave.sport/news/rangers-vs-st-johnstone-preview/)
That is a long list of reasons for a squad to look different, and none of it involves a dressing room bust-up. Whether the “star” in the rumor is one of these names or someone else entirely, nobody has said. The talk of a fallout or a training ground disagreement is speculation passed along by accounts with no interest in checking it.
Football fans are wired to look for a narrative, and a missing player is a blank page. Every absence gets a villain, a secret and a twist. Often the truth is a knock in training, a bout of illness, a rotation decision, or a manager making a call that looks mysterious only because he never explained it.
The real answer usually arrives in a press conference or a short club statement, which is far less dramatic than the headline promised. By then, the original rumor has been shared thousands of times.
So before you believe the behind-the-scenes version, ask who is reporting it and what their source is. Until the club or the player speaks, the honest position is the dullest one: he isn’t in the squad, and we don’t yet know why
