Rangers have made appointments behind the scenes in their medical department this summer to fight against their injury issues.
Speaking to Rangers Review (15 July), Philippe Clement confirmed that changes have been made at Ibrox during the summer break to battle against the problems the squad had last season with fitness, with several stars missing large chunks of the campaign.
The changes haven’t been made public, and Clement revealed that’s because he still respects those who were in place previously but changes needed to be made.
“I don’t want to go into too much detail because I also have respect for people who were in the building,” he said.
“We had to raise the levels there and to do things better. It is not only one thing that because of that we had a lot of injuries.
“There were several things. It is not about pointing to one person or two persons or whatever. It is about a lot of things, about raising levels and quality to get a better total in that way and to get better players. I am very confident the changes will make that better.”
Rangers injury update drops at Ibrox
As much as Celtic’s quality in key moments essentially won them the title last year, the injury problems over at Ibrox certainly didn’t help matters.
Clement was regularly left with limited options to choose from in several positions, and the load of the team wasn’t a helpful situation with such a busy schedule.
But there were also problems with injuries recurring throughout the season, and with lots of training injuries, and Clement clearly felt that things needed freshening up.
Fans and media don’t need to know the names of people who have come in or those who have left, as ultimately they will be judged on their performance in the role.
It hasn’t gone too well yet with James Tavernier and Todd Cantwell injured in pre-season and Nicolas Raskin getting clattered in a friendly that saw him leave in a protective boot, but injuries are part of the game and they can’t be blamed. Hopefully, they’re the anomaly in a fairly healthy season.
