Ben Godfrey Could Be Out For Weeks As Rangers Scramble For Two More Defensive Signings

Ben Godfrey’s opening chapter as a Rangers player has taken an unwanted twist just days into the new season, and it is fair to say that his start to life in Govan is not unfolding the way anyone at Ibrox had hoped. The 28-year-old centre-back arrived at the club on a season-long loan from Atalanta this summer, a move that was widely interpreted as a low-risk, high-reward gamble designed to help him rediscover the form and consistency that once made him a fixture in the Premier League. For Rangers, it was a chance to add experience and physicality to a backline that has needed reinforcement for some time. For Godfrey himself, it represented an opportunity to reset a career that has, in recent years, drifted well away from the trajectory it once seemed destined to follow.

There was a time when Godfrey looked every inch a coming man of English football. Capped twice by England at senior level, he built his reputation during a productive spell as a regular starter for Everton, where his combination of raw pace, aggression and ball-carrying ability from the back marked him out as one of the more intriguing young defenders in the country. Everton fans warmed to his willingness to drive forward with the ball and his no-nonsense approach to defending, qualities that made him a useful component of sides set up to be compact and combative. It is easy to forget now, given how his career has meandered since, just how highly rated he once was, and how many admirers he had accumulated by his early twenties.

Since making the move to Atalanta in 2024, however, that momentum has stalled almost entirely. Injuries have played their part, chipping away at his ability to string together consistent runs in the team, but so too have underwhelming and inconsistent performances whenever he has managed to get onto the pitch. The result has been a nomadic few years spent shuttling between loan clubs in search of regular football, with precious little to show for it in terms of minutes on the pitch or clear signs of improvement. His spell at Ipswich yielded just five appearances. A subsequent loan at Sheffield United produced only four. Most recently, a stint with Danish side Brondby saw him rack up 12 appearances, still a modest return for a player who was once considered a genuine top-flight talent in England.

That pattern of fits and starts is precisely why Rangers’ move for Godfrey carried an element of risk from the outset, even if the potential reward, should he rediscover his best form, was considered well worth taking a chance on. Derek McInnes and his recruitment team clearly felt there was enough quality and pedigree in the 28-year-old to make the loan worthwhile, particularly given the modest financial outlay involved in bringing in a player of his level on a temporary deal. But early signs from pre-season did little to settle any nerves among the Ibrox support, and in some quarters actively heightened them.

Godfrey’s pre-season introduction to Rangers supporters came in the club’s friendly against South African side Kaizer Chiefs, a game that ended 1-1 and offered little in the way of reassurance regarding his defensive solidity. In the build-up to Chiefs’ goal that day, Godfrey was beaten for pace in a moment that will not have gone unnoticed by a fanbase already primed to scrutinise every new arrival with a critical eye. Social media reaction in the aftermath was swift and, in places, unforgiving, with a number of supporters expressing concern that the club may have signed a player whose best days were firmly behind him rather than in front of him. Scepticism over the wisdom of the deal began to bubble to the surface, with question marks raised over both his fitness levels and his ability to cope with the physical demands of Scottish Premiership football.

It is worth stressing, though, that judging any player on a single moment from a pre-season friendly is a fraught exercise. Games in July are rarely played at full intensity, defensive units are often still finding their shape and understanding of one another, and individual errors can happen to even the most reliable of operators when match sharpness is still being built. Nevertheless, first impressions count for a great deal in football, and Godfrey’s early Rangers audition did little to dispel the doubts that had accompanied his arrival.

Those doubts looked to be steadily easing, however, when Rangers kicked off their competitive season away to Dundee United at Tannadice. McInnes handed Godfrey his first taste of competitive action in a Rangers shirt, throwing him straight into a Scottish Premiership opener that always carries an element of unpredictability given the occasion and the opposition’s home advantage. It was a bold call from the new Ibrox boss, but on the balance of the evidence produced before his enforced withdrawal, it looked to be a call that was paying off.

For the best part of an hour, Godfrey offered exactly the kind of defensive solidity that Rangers fans had been waiting to see from him. According to detailed statistics compiled by FotMob, the numbers behind his display painted a picture of a player who was not just surviving in unfamiliar surroundings but genuinely thriving in them. He made seven clearances across his 63 minutes on the pitch, six of which came via his head, underlining both his willingness to put his body on the line and his aerial dominance against a Dundee United forward line looking to test him early. He also produced one crucial last-man tackle, the sort of intervention that so often swings momentum and confidence in a defender’s favour, and crucially, he did all of this without picking up a single foul, a discipline that will not have gone unnoticed by a management team keen to avoid needless free-kicks and cards in what was always going to be a keenly contested Tannadice atmosphere.

The underlying numbers reinforced the eye test further still. Godfrey won two of his three ground and aerial duels, a solid return against opposition forwards who would have been well aware of the uncertainty surrounding his signing and no doubt targeted him accordingly in the buildup to the match. He also won a foul of his own, was dispossessed on zero occasions, and completed three passes into the final third, hinting at glimpses of the ball-playing ability from the back that first caught the eye during his Everton days. Taken together, it was a body of work that suggested Rangers may well have unearthed a shrewd bit of business, a defender capable of marrying physical resilience with genuine composure on the ball, exactly the profile McInnes has been trying to build into his back-line this summer.

And then, just after the hour mark, it all came to an abrupt and worrying halt. Godfrey was forced off the pitch, clearly troubled by a physical issue that immediately raised concerns among the Rangers coaching staff and travelling support alike. Replacements were readied, treatment was administered, and the defender made his way down the tunnel with question marks hanging over the extent of the problem. It was a cruel twist for a player who, up until that point, had been doing everything in his power to win over a fanbase that had, quite understandably, approached his arrival with a degree of caution.

The full extent of the issue is not yet clear, but according to reporting from the Sunday Mail, Godfrey is now set to undergo a scan in the coming days to determine precisely what has gone wrong and how long he is likely to be sidelined for as a result. The newspaper’s print edition outlines two possible scenarios. In the best-case outcome, Godfrey would be looking at an absence of somewhere between two and three weeks, a frustrating but manageable setback that would still allow him time to build towards full match fitness before the September international break disrupts the domestic calendar. However, the report also cautions that the more likely outcome could see him sidelined for considerably longer than that, a prospect that will concern both Rangers’ medical staff and McInnes himself, given how encouraging Godfrey’s first proper audition in a Rangers shirt had looked before it was so abruptly cut short.

Should the worst-case scenario prove accurate, it would represent another frustrating chapter in a career that has already been repeatedly disrupted by fitness issues since his move to Italy two years ago. It would also plunge Rangers straight back into a defensive conundrum that McInnes had presumably hoped his summer recruitment drive had already gone some way to solving.

This is where the story takes on added significance beyond simply one player’s individual misfortune. Ibrox News understands that, even before this fresh injury scare, Derek McInnes was continuing to work the phones in search of further defensive reinforcements, with the club still viewed as being in the market for two additional defenders before the summer transfer window slams shut. That pursuit had already resulted in the signing of Olwethu Makhanya, a versatile defensive addition who has offered McInnes another option to call upon as he attempts to build a settled and dependable back-line ahead of what promises to be a demanding campaign on multiple fronts.

The logic behind wanting further defensive depth was already sound before Godfrey’s injury complication. Rangers face a gruelling schedule this season that will include Scottish Premiership commitments, cup competitions on both domestic fronts, and continued involvement in Europe as they push through Europa League qualifying against Jagiellonia Bialystok. Squeezing every possible ounce of performance out of a threadbare defensive unit across all of those competitions was always going to be a risky strategy, and McInnes and his recruitment staff will have been acutely aware of the dangers of entering the season without sufficient cover in the heart of defence. Now, with Godfrey facing a spell on the sidelines of uncertain length, that need has been thrown into even sharper relief.

It is a timely reminder of just how thin the margins can be for even the best-laid squad-building plans in modern football. One awkward step, one poorly timed tackle, one moment of misfortune, and an entire summer’s worth of careful planning can be forced back to the drawing board. Rangers had appeared to be building genuine defensive stability this summer, with the additions of Godfrey, Makhanya, and the returning Ross McCrorie all pointing towards a back-line with a healthy blend of experience, physicality and versatility. Godfrey’s injury threatens to undo some of that carefully constructed depth, at least in the short term, and puts renewed pressure on Ibrox chiefs to get further defensive business over the line before the window shuts.

There is also a broader footballing point to consider here, one that speaks to the unforgiving nature of a results-driven industry. Godfrey arrived at Ibrox needing to prove a point, both to himself and to a watching football world that had begun to write him off as a player whose early promise would forever remain unfulfilled. His performance against Dundee United, in the limited window of opportunity he was afforded before injury intervened, offered a genuine glimpse of what he is still capable of when fit, focused and given a system that suits his strengths. The challenge now will be whether he can rediscover that level again once he returns from this latest setback, and whether the injury itself proves to be a minor hiccup or another entry in what has become an increasingly frustrating pattern of fitness troubles.

For Rangers supporters, the mood around Godfrey’s Ibrox career so far captures something of a wider truth about following football in the modern era, where opinions can swing wildly from game to game, and sometimes from minute to minute within the same match. A shaky pre-season outing against Kaizer Chiefs was enough to generate real scepticism about the wisdom of the signing. A composed, disciplined, defensively sound hour against Dundee United was enough to start turning some of those doubters around. And now, an injury of uncertain severity threatens to reset the conversation all over again, with supporters left to wonder not just about the length of his absence but about what kind of player will emerge on the other side of it.

What is clear is that Derek McInnes cannot afford to sit back and hope for the best while Godfrey’s situation is clarified. The Rangers manager will already be aware of the need for defensive reinforcements given the scale of the season that lies ahead, and this injury only sharpens the urgency of that search. Whether that means accelerating an existing target, exploring the loan market for another short-term fix, or dipping into the permanent transfer market for a longer-lasting solution remains to be seen, but the message from Tannadice on the opening weekend of the season was unmistakable: Rangers need defensive depth, and they need it soon.

There is also the small matter of Godfrey’s own psychological journey to consider. Players who have endured repeated injury setbacks often talk about the mental toll it takes almost as much as the physical one, the frustration of building towards fitness and form only to be knocked back again just as things appear to be clicking into place. Godfrey has been here before during his time at Atalanta and across his various loan spells, and how he responds to this latest setback, both physically and mentally, could go a long way towards determining whether his time at Ibrox ultimately becomes a redemption story or another entry in a career that has, for now, failed to live up to its early billing.

There is a wider recruitment picture worth dwelling on too. Rangers’ summer business under McInnes has been extensive and, on paper at least, ambitious, with new faces arriving across almost every area of the pitch. Lawrence Shankland has come in to add firepower up front, Dan Neil and Cammy Devlin have strengthened the midfield, Vanja Dragojevic has been recruited to add further defensive quality, and Ivor Pandur has arrived to compete for the goalkeeping jersey. Add in Makhanya, McCrorie and Godfrey himself, and it is clear that McInnes has been working with real intent to overhaul a squad that fell short of expectations last season. That level of turnover, though, brings its own challenges. New arrivals need time to gel, understand one another’s tendencies, and build the kind of trust and communication that underpins a settled defensive unit. Godfrey’s injury, arriving as it does so early in that bedding-in process, robs Rangers of valuable time they simply cannot get back, time that would otherwise have gone towards building partnerships and understanding at the back.

It is also worth considering how this situation might shape McInnes’s approach to squad rotation and game management in the weeks ahead. With Godfrey sidelined for an as yet undetermined period, the Rangers boss will need to lean more heavily on the other defensive options at his disposal, whether that means recalling more experienced heads, accelerating the integration of newer signings, or shuffling personnel into unfamiliar positions to paper over the gap. None of those solutions are ideal on a long-term basis, which only reinforces why the club is understood to still be actively pursuing further additions at the back before the transfer window closes. A club competing on three fronts domestically and in Europe simply cannot afford to be caught short at centre-back, and the events at Tannadice have only sharpened that reality for those working behind the scenes at Ibrox.

There is also context worth adding around Rangers’ recent history with loan signings of Godfrey’s profile. Ibrox has, over the years, seen mixed fortunes with players arriving on temporary deals in search of regular football and a platform to rebuild their reputations. Some have gone on to become crucial contributors during their time in Govan, using the trust and game time afforded to them to rediscover form that had eluded them elsewhere. Others have struggled to adapt to the unique pressures that come with representing a club of Rangers’ size and history, where scrutiny is constant and patience with underperformance can be in short supply. Godfrey’s situation, at least based on the ninety minutes of pre-season and the hour of competitive action seen so far, appeared to be trending towards the more positive end of that spectrum before injury intervened. Whether that trajectory can be maintained once he returns remains one of the more intriguing subplots of Rangers’ season to come.

None of this is to overstate the severity of what is, for now, simply an injury of unconfirmed extent awaiting a scan. Football clubs deal with fitness setbacks on a near-weekly basis throughout a long season, and not every issue that forces a substitution turns into a lengthy layoff. There remains every chance that Godfrey’s problem proves to be relatively minor, allowing him to return within that best-case two to three week window outlined by the Sunday Mail and pick up his Rangers career exactly where the Tannadice performance suggested it was heading. But given his injury history over the past couple of years, there is understandable caution rather than blind optimism among those assessing his prospects of a swift return, and it would be no surprise to see Rangers err on the side of caution with his recovery timeline regardless of what the initial scan reveals.

For now, Rangers fans will simply have to wait for the results of that scan and hope that the more optimistic end of the Sunday Mail’s reported timeline proves to be the accurate one. A two to three week absence would be a frustrating but ultimately manageable blow, allowing Godfrey to return to action relatively swiftly and pick up where he left off in that encouraging opening-day showing. A longer lay-off, however, would represent a much more significant complication, one that would pile further pressure on a Rangers recruitment department already working hard behind the scenes to strengthen a defensive unit that has looked stretched at various points already this summer.

Either way, the coming days promise to be an anxious wait for everyone connected with Ibrox, from the manager and his coaching staff right down to the supporters who had just begun to warm to their new centre-back after his impressive if ultimately curtailed bow at Tannadice. Ben Godfrey came to Rangers hoping to rebuild his career and silence his doubters. For 63 promising minutes against Dundee United, he looked to be doing exactly that. Now, the football world waits to find out just how significant this latest setback will prove to be, both for his own immediate future and for a Rangers defence that may well need reinforcements sooner rather than later