John Souttar shows Rangers benefits to new way of working but further steps needed to make squad 'more robust'

The vast number of injuries piling high at Ibrox was a problem Philippe Clement promised to get to the bottom of this summer.

But yet again, the luckless Rangers boss was forced to throw another name on top. This time, it was Tom Lawrence as it was confirmed the Welshman is the latest Gers ace to check into the casualty clinic having hobbled off at Hampden. He now faces a six week lay-off following a knock sustained during Sunday’s Premier Sports Cup semi-final win over Motherwell.

Frankly, losing a key man like the former Derby skipper is the last thing his Belgian gaffer needs as Clement battles for his job. The under-pressure manager made cutting down the club’s never-ending fitness woes a priority ahead of the new campaign. But already he’s seen the likes of Danilo, Oscar Cortes, Ridvan Yilmaz, Rabbi Matondo laid low this term - with Lawrence the latest.

However, as damaging as those injuries have been to a team nine points adrift in the title race, Clement is just relieved the pile up hasn’t hit the heights of last year’s. He said: “We need to be realistic about that.

“I don't think there's one squad in the world where there are no injuries. That’s a utopia. In periods yes, but last season we had in a lot of moments 12 players out. That's never been the case this season.

“So there are changes made in staff, in the way of working, in a lot of things. And we start to see also the benefits of that.

“For example, John Souttar in his career never played so many minutes as he's been doing now. Never. Before he always had injuries in those moments and there are other examples also in that way.

"So there are good steps made. We still have to make steps to make the team in general more robust. I'm happy to see some players