Sometimes Rangers can be too honest for their own good.
Alfredo Morelos has played a lot of football this season – 42 games to be exact – is clearly struggling with minor injury, and yet, we have sanctioned him meeting up with Colombia for international duty.
Now, had his country shown him an ounce of respect over the last 12 months then it would be fair to let them assess his fitness however, after giving him just nine minutes of competitive action in the summer during the Copa America, followed by not playing him at all in January when we needed him most, I’m not quite sure why we are indulging them.
Look at Celtic, for reasons of “fitness and conditioning”, Daizen Maeda has withdrawn from Japan’s World Cup qualifiers. If he was struggling for fitness, I doubt that he would have been able to play the full 90 minutes as he did at the weekend, also, it’s not like they have had Europa League games in mid-week to contend with – in short, they’re up to their usual tricks to gain an advantage and it’s high time we started playing by their rules.
Morelos hasn’t had a break from playing since Covid-19 brought the game to a halt in 2020, unless you count the times when he’s had to isolate travelling back from Colombia, his form under Giovanni van Bronckhorst has been sensational, but he is in desperate need of some time off before he burns out.
Getting niggly injuries is a sure sign of a player on the verge of breaking down, I understand how much El Bufalo loves his country but on this occasion, the decision should have been taken out of his hands.