Monday Blues

With the feel good factor around Ibrox the past few weeks, there was bound to be a bit of bad news heading our way soon. It arrived today, with the announcement that Nikica Jelavic has suffered a serious ankle injury which requires surgery. He'll miss a few weeks, which makes him a major doubt to feature at the Tattie Dome on the 24th.

It's hard not be frustrated - Jelavic has settled in well, showed some excellent link up play and has bagged a few goals for himself as well. The "challenge", if I can call it that, by Ian Black was just a "you're going naewhere pal" scythe down, with absolutely no intention in playing the ball. He was given a yellow, but I'd make a case for these types of challenges, which are all too typical of the defending mentality in Scottish football, to be given a red. His only aim was to bring the opposition play down, and he's caused his fellow professional a serious injury because of it.

We won't know for sure how long Jelavic will be out for until after his surgery tomorrow, but the Croatian FA have described the injury as "serious", which doesn't bode well. Rangers released a short statement on the official website which confirmed;

"Following a tackle in Saturday's game against Hearts at Tynecastle, Nikica Jelavic suffered ankle ligament damage that requires surgery. The striker will now miss a number of matches for the Club."

So, with Nikica likely to miss the upcoming Celtic match, what does that mean for the team? We've seen a 4-4-2 used almost exclusively in the league this season, but I suspect Walter will play a defensive 4-5-1. He may have done this anyway, but the injury to Jelavic may have erased any thoughts of going 4-4-2. The other question mark for me would be Weiss - his performance against Hearts wasn't great, and we've already seen Walter's reluctance to play him in his defensive sides in the Champions League. We have Motherwell at home in the SPL before Celtic, so maybe he'll be a given a chance to impress in that game.

A bad start as we go into an international week. Many Rangers players will be involved in Scotland's two games, although Broadfoot has pulled out and McGregor is a doubt. Hopefully the lads can get some points for the country - Naisy reckons we can get four - and let's hope we get no more injuries.

Upon the return from international football, we have Valencia at Ibrox sandwiched between the Motherwell and Celtic games, so that'll be a hectic week. I'll try and get a few interesting Rangers related articles up for you during this break, so please do keep checking the blog.

Until next time readers.