Rangers lose Chermiti to long-term injury as McInnes hunts striker and counts defensive cost
Rangers will accelerate their search for a new striker after Youssef Chermiti was ruled out for a significant period with an anterior cruciate ligament injury — the ligament that stabilises the knee, and the one no footballer wants to hear mentioned.
The 22-year-old Portugal Under-21 international sustained the damage in Saturday's defeat by Hibernian and now faces a lengthy spell on the sidelines. Rangers described it as a "significant period of time" out, and a specialist in London will be consulted this week ahead of a possible operation BBC Sport.
The cruel timing is hard to miss. Rangers had rejected a bid for Chermiti shortly before the injury, with manager Derek McInnes confirming the offer fell short of the club's valuation BBC Sport. Galatasaray had been linked with the former Everton forward, who had been showing flashes of his best form in Glasgow — including a hat-trick the weekend before Rangers' trip to Livingston in late February Rangers.co.uk.
McInnes said the club is now being "proactive" in seeking attacking reinforcements BBC Sport. The transfer window's closing rhythm — that twice-yearly scramble where clubs chase deals against the clock — has just acquired an edge of genuine urgency at Ibrox.
The bad news does not stop at Chermiti. Left-back Tuur Rommens was also forced off in the Hibernian match, suffering a groin problem that will keep him out for up to eight weeks. McInnes warned that the defensive injuries have left Rangers "playing with fire" BBC Sport.
For supporters, the timing is particularly stinging. Rangers trail 2-1 from the first leg of their Europa League third-round qualifier against Jagiellonia Bialystok and need to overturn that deficit at Ibrox on Thursday. European qualification — and the financial security that comes with it — now rests on a squad suddenly stripped of two key players.
Chermiti's absence will be felt most sharply in the final third. A striker who had begun to repay Rangers' faith with goals, he now begins a rehabilitation measured in months, not weeks. For a club caught between fighting on multiple fronts and patching up a treatment room that is filling up fast, McInnes's "proactive" promise will be tested in the days ahead.
