Today, Michael Beale confirmed that Alex Lowry will be out of first team contention for another month from now.
It will be four weeks or more until we see any return for the talented young attacker whose last appearance for Rangers was a fleeting moment against Hearts in the excellent Tynecastle victory last month. With just four appearances in total this term, his only start came against Motherwell in December at Ibrox in what has been a challenging time for Lowry.
His season can be summed up as one of frustration, with significant injuries coming either side of not being able to command a regular spot on the team as well as managerial change at the club.
Michael Beale is on the record on his praise for Lowry’s talent but it’s clear from the soundbites that more is required in terms of his application in training and overall application as a professional at Rangers.
It has emerged that recent game time was thwarted due to an unfortunate incident on the training pitch, as told by the manager ahead of the trip to Edinburgh to face Hibs on Wednesday evening (below):
“The day before the Partick Thistle game he was in the thinking to start. No one was near him. The ball came and he turned and he had a problem with his ankle and it was a six-week injury, which he is two weeks into so he’s out of the boot at the moment, but Alex is probably four weeks from being ready to play.”
Depending on the league situation, there could be space for the 19-year old to feature toward the end of the campaign but he will soon need to make his case for real. He will need to remain patient for now but the new campaign is looking like a pivotal one for such a highly rated prospect.
As a point of reference Malik Tillman is just 11 months older than Lowry who needs to be able to make a similar impact as the German-American in order to fulfil the talent that he clearly possesses.