Rangers issue Lawrence Shankland injury update with major decision to be made

Shankland was forced off after five minutes of the 1-0 win over Motherwell on Saturday with a recurrence of an injury suffered at Hearts last season and could now be sidelined for three months.

The club will now await results from a follow-up scan in London before deciding whether or not to proceed with surgery.

Manager Derek McInnes said: "We've had confirmation he has had a grade 2c tear in his hamstring, very similar to the one he did at Hearts in January.

"He is now getting a follow-up scan with a specialist in London to determine if he has surgery or allows it to heal naturally.

“If he has the surgery, it's an extra three to four weeks, but it lessens the risk of it maybe happening again.”

It is a further blow for Rangers, who already have Portuguese striker Youssef Chermiti out long term with an ACL injury, leaving Ryan Naderi, who scored the winner off the bench against Well, new signing Kevin Kelsy and fringe player Bojan Miovski, as their three remaining strikers.

“We just need to support him as we do with all our injured players, but having him and Youssef out, guys who guarantee you goals at Premiership level, there’s no doubt it’s a blow for us,” McInnes added.

“But their disappointments are other people’s opportunities as you’ve seen, even from Saturday, Ryan getting his goal and Kevin getting introduced.

“We have Bojan Miovski, who knows his way about the Premiership as well, so it’s not all doom and gloom on that front, but it is disappointing news.”

Shankland has also been ruled out of Scotland’s upcoming Nations League matches as new head coach Sebastien Pocognoli takes charge of the national team for the first time.

“I could see when he walked off at the weekend he knew it was significant,” McInnes added.

"It was his very first sprint after two and a half minutes standing about [due to VAR] breaking down. He came back really smoothly last time and got to the World Cup."