Rangers could be facing a situation similar to the one that befell Old Firm rivals Celtic in the last international break after it was confirmed that Croatian skipper, Domagoj Vida, has tested positive for coronavirus, as reported by Sky Sports.
Unbelievably, the 31-year old had played the first-half for his country in the 3-3 draw with Turkey before being withdrawn due to a “suspicious” test, to make matters worse, the Besiktas centre-half was seen hugging and shaking hands with club team-mates before the game.
Borna Barisic is away on international duty just now but thankfully he was on the substitutes bench for the fixture and, hopefully, wasn’t in close contact with Vida.
The governing bodies have got a lot of things right since football was shutdown but one major mistake has been allowing international friendlies to be played, putting players at risk for no reason has seen clubs around Europe facing the consequences.
Qualifiers and the Nations League fixtures could easily have been played in one block at the end of the respective domestic seasons and used as preparation for the re0arranged European Championships.
Rangers, so far, have been lucky in that it has just been the idiocy of Jordan Jones and George Edmundson that has had an impact on player availability, however, with Celtic again facing the prospect of Nir Bitton and Hatem Elhamed having to self isolate, we will be fortunate to emerge on the other side of this break unscathed.
This is the last set of international fixtures until next spring so if we can get through this lot – like the title race itself – we need only concern ourselves with our own and after the actions of Jones and Edmundson, you would like to think we won’t see a repeat.