Rangers have missed Filip Helander since he went down with an injury in the League Cup final during the early part of December. The Swedish defender had established himself as the first-choice centre back alongside Connor Goldson. However, we are now two months since his injury, and the summer signing is not yet close to recovering.
Gerrard gives a bad update about Helander
Now, Steven Gerrard gave an update on the defender saying that he could be away until March. The English manager recently said (Daily Record), ”Helander, hopefully, will return in around 4 to 5 weeks.”
The manager had earlier revealed that Helander’s injury was a unique one. This is what Gerrard had said in December regarding Helander’s injury-, ”The doctor told me that in his 25-year experience in medicine, he had only seen this issue on a couple of occasions. It’s a difficult one to put an exact date on the time he will be out. But he is going to be in a boot for four to six weeks. That’s the starter pack so let’s go from there and see how it progresses.”
Even recently, Gerrard used the word ‘hopefully’ to talk about his return date, and that doesn’t instil too much confidence. Helander had played a crucial role for Rangers in the Europa League group stages, and now with him being out for a further few weeks, the Swedish defender is sure to miss the knockout tie against Braga.
What now for Gerrard?
Rangers have an able deputy in Nikola Katic who has done well in the last few months. However, Rangers are competing on the various front, and they wouldn’t be able to rotate much. George Edmundson is the other defender available. The Englishman is vastly inexperienced, but he has impressed in whatever little game time he has managed so far.
It will be necessary for Gerrard to wade through the next month without injury to either Goldson or Katic. Even when Helander recovers from his injury, he is likely to take a few more weeks to build match fitness. The manager cannot throw him into the lineup straight away especially when every game for Rangers from now onwards could be a season-defining one.
Hopefully, the likes of Katic and Goldson can come out triumphant in this tough phase. Rangers have done well defensively for most parts, and it is their attacking side of the game which has let them down post the winter break. Hopefully, they would soon find their form. As for Helander, it is a significant miss for Rangers as he turned out to be a crucial defender in the first half of the season.
