Danny Wilson, injured against Partick Thistle, isn’t going to feature against Hearts, the club he captained to the Scottish Championship title a couple of years back, he’ll not play again this season in fact.
The Rangers defender is currently wearing a knee brace and is scheduled to have a scan to fully determine the extent of his knee injury, but Pedro Caixinha has confirmed Wilson isn’t going to play again this season.
He wouldn’t speculate, quoted by Official Website from his pre-match news conference, on the length of time Wilson will be sidelined, the final three games of the Premiership season are a write off though.
Caixinha said: ‘We need to wait for Tuesday to see what is really going on with Danny and to see how long he will be out for. He is definitely not going to play the last three matches. He will be analysed by a specialist on Tuesday. It is on the knee and that is the reason he came off against Partick Thistle.’
But there’s no hesitation in the Rangers boss continuing to use the younger players though.
Adding: ‘If I need to use the youth players then I will use them, for example Jamie Barjonas played in the last game and he did very well in my opinion. They are training with us on a regular basis so they can be an option as well.’
Looking ahead to the game itself this will give Caixinha the chance to come up against Ian Cathro for the first time since his appointment as Rangers boss some six weeks ago.
However, Hearts boss Cathro is well known to Caixinha from his coaching days in Portugal and a tough game is expected.
The boss said: ‘Ian Cathro worked with Nuno who is now at Porto at both Rio Ave and Valencia and we Portuguese coaches share the same philosophy. It is not an easy thing to understand just like that and the relationship between the training sessions, the analysis of the opponent and your own team and pick it up straight away.’
Mark Warburton was in charge when Hearts recorded a 4-1 win over Rangers earlier in the season, which is a game Caixinha is keen to avenge.
‘We know Hearts are changing their formation in their last few games because they want to start with that formation from next season. Maybe Ian is trying some sort of experiment. They are a team who play positive football, they try to have a positive approach and we cannot forget in the last confrontation they beat us 4-1.’
Adding: ‘That defeat must be present in our minds and above all we must build on the reaction we had against Partick. We must show that reaction at Ibrox because the last time we played there it was disaster.’
