STEVEN GERRARD is hopeful that Joe Aribo and Kemar Roofe are ‘really close’ to making a return to action for Rangers following their spells out due to injury, but the manager believes Saturday’s Old Firm clash is likely to come ‘a bit too soon’ for both players.
An ankle sprain has meant 24-year-old Aribo has not featured for the Light Blues since August 12 when he scored in a 3-0 win over St Johnstone at Ibrox. Roofe, meanwhile, picked up a calf injury during the club’s Europa League qualifying fixture against Lincoln Red Imps in Gibraltar on September 17.
Gerrard confirmed both attacking players returned to full training yesterday but new signing Bongani Zungu will be out of action for the next ten days as he finds himself in quarantine.
The Gers boss also said it was too early for him to comment on the fitness of players returning from international duty when he discussed tomorrow’s massive Glasgow derby at his pre-match press conference this morning.
“I think we are still in the process of assessing a few of the international players that have arrived yesterday afternoon or evening, which is pretty late. So in terms of a full injury update I won’t be able to provide that.
“As I say, we're still assessing a few of the international lads which we will do this morning, but nothing has popped out or came up that's extreme where someone could miss tomorrow's game. So we've pretty much got a clean bill of health besides Nikola Katic, which is fantastic.
"Zungu is currently in quarantine, so unfortunately we won’t see him for possibly another ten days. He arrived in the country maybe three days ago, but obviously coming from France, it's a country where he has to quarantine for two weeks.
“So we've managed to get him some gym equipment to his place where he is staying and he will be in quarantine for another ten days, which is unfortunate but that's just the rules.
"In terms of tomorrow it's going to be a tough game. [Our 2-1 win in December last year] was the first time we had managed to get a win there in a very long time which basically let's everyone know how difficult the task is and has been for many years going to Celtic Park.
“They are a good team, a strong team, a successful team, but we went there last year with a game plan and we performed extremely well. The players went there with confidence and belief and got the job done. We're hoping they can go and produce a similar type of performance."
Injuries to key players such as Roofe, Aribo and Ryan Jack haven’t had an impact on Rangers’ results or performances this term, with Gerrard’s players recording 11 wins and two draws from their 13 competitive matches so far, scoring 35 goals.
The manager has been delighted with his side’s impressive displays at a time when Covid-19 has had a huge impact on football. He added: “It's very challenging for every club and there have been a lot of clubs, not just in this league but around Europe, that have had their own challenges from Covid-19.
“We've coped extremely well missing three of our very important players, arguably three starters, so all the managers, not just myself and not just Neil [Lennon], are faced with different challenges week to week during the season. You have to cope and get on with it."
Tomorrow’s derby, like all competitive fixtures this season so far, will be played in front of empty stands at Parkhead, but Gerrard is confident his players will be ready for the challenge they face on the pitch.
He continued: "We're not really focused on there not being any fans. We're focused on our game plan and we've still got a session to do this morning to get some information into the players.
“We know it's going to be a very tough challenge and we need to find a real top-level performance if we have got any hopes of taking the three points.”