Nikola Katic won’t feature in Rangers’ final game of the season away to Kilmarnock this Sunday, as reported by The Scottish Sun.
The 22-year-old Croatian defender has been given a weeks extra holiday by Steven Gerrard due to Katic’s participation in the upcoming European U21 Championships.
He joins up with his national side on June 3rd meaning his summer is exceptionally short and Gerrard will clearly want him to be as fresh as possible for our upcoming European qualifiers.
As quoted by The Scottish Sun, Katic explained: “Due to the European Championships, Gerrard let me go on holiday a week earlier than the rest of the team. The coach gave me a work programme to do while I’m preparing for the championships, but the emphasis is on the holiday at the moment.”
Katic has had a really solid debut season at Ibrox and can look back on some really strong performances in the heart of the defence alongside Connor Goldson.
Of the 30 games he’s featured in this term he’s helped keep an impressive 15 clean sheets.
There’s certainly still more work to do when it comes to his development but he’s moving in the right direction and hopefully Gerrard can get even better performances from him next season.