Rangers' injury 'concern' revealed as Nicolas Raskin rumours and Jayden Meghoma status addressed

It had been hoped that the striker, who hurt his ankle in last week’s defeat to Viktoria Plzen, would recover in time to face the Belgians in the first match of a two-legged shootout to reach the Champions League on Tuesday but he was asbent from training the day before the match.

As much as £40 million is estimated to be riding on the tie. Martin all but confirmed after Saturday's League Cup win over Alloa Athletic that Hamza Igamane is not a contender to start due to lack of fitness. It leaves Brazilian striker Danilo, who has yet to score this season, as the likeliest option to lead the line against Brugge as Rangers seek to establish an advantage to take to Belgium next week.

“Big Cyriel is probably the only concern,” Martin said. “He'll be touch and go. He's responded really well to treatment. It was nowhere near as bad as we first feared. So if it's not tomorrow, we expect him to be back for the weekend (v St Mirren) and next week.”

Martin expressed his hope that new loan signing Jayden Meghoma from Brentford will be eligible to play and so the left-back could feature. “I think he’s going to be registered in time for tomorrow's match,” he said. “We hope so anyway, so we'll have to wait and see. But yeah, that's the hope, that he can be in the squad. He trained today and yesterday so we'll see if he's ready to go.”

The manager is also confident that Nico Raskin is in the right frame of mind to play, with the midfielder the subject of more rumours about his future. There has been a suggestion that he had asked to leave the club but Martin denied this and stressed the Belgian is returning to top form.

Raskin rumours addressed

“I think he'll get better and better,” he said. “The only reason he wasn’t in the squad on Saturday was for a rest, but he’s trained really well. I think he’s going to be a big player for us.

“I said that from the beginning. I've also said it's been a difficult summer for him. But really, the last few weeks, I've loved the energy that Nico's brought. He is going to be really important for us. He will play tomorrow night and he'll be a good player for us.”

On the specific issue of Raskin’s future, Martin added: “No, he's been really good. We analysed his clips, me and him together, from the game against Plzen last Tuesday. So, no, I've not heard anything (about him asking to leave). Not at all. He's been brilliant. I'm pretty sure Kevin (Thelwell, sporting director) and Patrick (Stewart, chief executive) would have told me if we'd heard that sooner.”

It's unusual that Rangers face such a crucial European tie against a team they played only as recently as last month. The Belgian side are making a quick return to Ibrox having shared four goals with Rangers in a friendly near the start of July in Martin’s first match as manager. He said only a limited amount could be taken from that meeting.

Brugge have since won two of their first three league games, losing the other, and made it past Red Bull Salzburg in the previous Champions League qualifying round. Their head coach Nicky Hayen was manager of Haverfordwest County in the Cymru League in Wales while Martin was in charge of Swansea.

“Both teams look very different already,” said Martin, with reference to the 2-2 friendly draw, when Rangers came back from being 2-0 down at half-time. “There's a few patterns we definitely looked at over the last few days that have been consistent in their games moving forward.

“But personnel is different. The circumstances are different. The atmosphere is going to be very different. I think it's very hard to read too much into that, for sure. We're a very different team now in terms of personnel as well.”