With Rangers manager Steven Gerrard confirming ahead of last weekend’s game that we had no fresh injuries at the club, few batted an eyelid as Nikola Katic starting on the bench and Borna Barisic missed out completely as the assumption was made that it was simply for rotation purposes when it came to the Premiership or continuity after the Rapid Vienna showing, more than anything else.
With the October international break now gearing itself up for the first games, the Croatian Football Federation have confirmed that both Barisic and Katic have been ruled out by injury but there’s more than a certain amount of mystery as to what the issues are unless I’ve simply missed something?
Just have to hope that maybe it’s precautionary and with the break now they are fit and raring to go once more.
Striker Kyle Lafferty has also ruled himself out of Northern Ireland international action and manager Michael O’Neill spoke to the BBC to talk about his ‘disappointment’ at that development and the clear suggestion from their boss is Lafferty himself asked to be taken out of contention as O’Neill insists the matter will be addressed after the break.
Again whether on the back of a knock, or injury – he did start Hearts on the bench and only came on for the final few minutes of the match, it seems there might be a communication breakdown or something here.
In any event, he should help keep the 31-year-old fresher for us and if there is an underlying issue, again hopefully the break will rectify that.