NafisaDerek McInnes has confirmed one major piece of SAD NEWS for Rangers supporters following their dramatic 1-0 victory over St Mirren at Ibrox, with the manager revealing another key player is facing a lengthy spell on the sidelines.
The Light Blues were forced to dig deep for their fourth consecutive league victory, eventually snatching all three points in the final minute through Bojan Miovski.
It was the kind of finish that sent Ibrox into delirium, with the North Macedonian striker coming off the bench to provide the decisive moment after Ryan Naderi slipped him through on goal.
Miovski kept his composure, lifting the ball over Jacob Chapman to finally break St Mirren’s resistance and give McInnes another huge reason to celebrate.
But behind the scenes, there was a much less welcome development for the Rangers boss.
McInnes has already been forced to deal with a growing injury list this season, and the latest update means Daisuke Yokota is now set to join Lawrence Shankland and Youssef Chermiti on the sidelines.
The Japanese winger travelled to London after suffering a serious groin problem, and McInnes has now confirmed that surgery is required.
The news comes at a particularly frustrating time for Rangers, with the club heading into a huge run of fixtures that includes Sunday’s Premier Sports Cup quarter-final against Celtic at Ibrox.
For all the concerns surrounding the performance against St Mirren, Rangers eventually got exactly what they needed.
They dominated for large spells during the opening 45 minutes and created enough opportunities to have been comfortably ahead by half-time.
Instead, their failure to make the pressure count almost came back to haunt them.
McInnes admitted afterwards that his side had been guilty of wasting too many chances before finally finding the breakthrough.
“Delighted, absolutely delighted,” he beamed. “We were waiting for a bit of quality and a big moment in the game and thankfully Bojan comes up with that. I
“t was a win we deserved. Let’s be straight, we battered St Mirren in the first half. We were so guilty of passing up so many opportunities.
“ I thought the performance in the first half was really strong, the aggression, the quickness of our passing, the ability to play in wider areas, the balls in the box, the amount of set plays we had.
“It’s a crime that we’ve not scored in that first half and it’s something we need to get better at.
“I thought between 65 and 85 minutes, St Mirren were a better team.
“But I’m just delighted we’ve found a moment to go and get all three points.
“Everybody loves a last minute winner, and you’ve got to enjoy those moments.
“We’ve got to be honest, 20 minutes before that I didn’t know what was coming.
“But we got there in the end, and it was a brilliant moment for the fans to celebrate with the lads.
The late winner ensured the mood around Ibrox remained positive, but McInnes was soon forced to deliver a far more concerning update.
The Rangers manager confirmed that Shankland is due to undergo surgery in London, with the club deciding that an operation is the best course of action because of the recurring nature of his hamstring problem.
McInnes also revealed that Yokota will undergo an operation of his own.
The Rangers boss explained that the scan carried out after Yokota’s injury showed a tear involving the muscle and tendon in his groin, leaving surgery as the preferred option.
McInnes confirmed: “Lawrence is due to get the operation tomorrow in London.
“They’ve just made the decision that, as I thought they would do. Something Lawrence was likely to do as well, although it’s the same level of injury, 2C hamstring in that area, we just feel, because it’s been a recurrence really, that minimises, by getting the surgery, it minimises the risk of that happening again.
“I know it can still happen again, but we need to be able to have that confidence for that, and it might take that extra three or four weeks.
“Unfortunately, he’s not alone in London, Daisuke Yokota is getting a groin operation tomorrow as well, which has been quite unusual in the sense that, once we got him scanned on Monday, it showed that he had actually torn the muscle off the tendon in his groin.
“It’s such an unpredictable injury, that the surgeon has decided that it needs surgery as well, so he’ll be out at a significant time as well, probably reaching to two or three months as well with that.
“So they’re actually getting done one after the other, the surgeon’s rubbing his hands, he’s getting two for the price of one. It is Shankland first and then Yokota.”
The Yokota update represents another major blow for Rangers, particularly with the club now entering a crucial period of the season.
The 25-year-old had been part of McInnes’ plans during the opening weeks of the campaign, and losing him for potentially two or three months leaves another gap for the manager to address.
Rangers have already lost Chermiti for a significant period, while Shankland’s injury has removed their captain and one of their most important attacking options.
Yet despite those setbacks, McInnes’ side have continued to collect results.
The victory over St Mirren was their fourth straight league win and came just days before the first Old Firm meeting of the season.
Now, however, the manager must find a way to navigate the coming weeks without two more important players.
Miovski’s late heroics ensured Rangers could celebrate another victory at Ibrox.
But McInnes’ post-match confirmation has also underlined just how costly the win could prove to be, with Yokota’s surgery adding another name to an already worrying injury list.
Nafisa
