Ianis Hagi 'wouldn't want' Rangers exit for Romania call up as boss Edi Iordanescu defended amid rising tensions

Former Romania cap Florin Manea reckons it was Ianis Hagi who didn't want to join the Romania squad amid an escalating row over his international future.

Hagi was ignored by his country for their Euro 2024 double header with Andorra and Belarus as he works on his fitness at Auchenhowie after returning from injury following 13 months out after a serious knee injury. Despite returning to first-team action, the playmaker is still working his way back to becoming an Ibrox regular with his only start coming in the Scottish Cup victory over Partick Thistle.

Since then he has been used sparingly by Michael Beale in cameos off the bench as the 24-year-old looks to fully recover from his nightmare ACL injury. But that hasn't stopped legendary dad Gheorghe, who played for both Real Madrid and Barcelona, raging at Edi Iordanescu's decision to leave him out of the first games of the European qualifying group stage.

Despite the fury, Manea told Pro Sport that the Rangers star would have not wanted to make the journey with the squad to get a cameo off the bench. The footballer turned pundit told Pro Sport: "From what I understood from Gheorghe Hagi was that he would have wanted Ianis to be summoned as a matter of morale.

"We don't know if we have the ability to offer places for morale when we need every fit player. It's a round trip. Honestly, I wouldn't have come on the trip, to play 7 minutes, if I were Ianis Hagi.

"I used to watch the big players, when they were injured, they didn't come. Nobody likes to fly hundreds of thousands of kilometres, to come here, to play for 7 minutes"

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