Rangers’ Europa League squad revealed as Danilo and crocked star denied amid left-field selections from Clement

Rangers have left crocked Danilo OUT of their Europa League squad with Rabbi Matondo also omitted from the pool submitted to UEFA

Philippe Clement submitted 21 names for the Rangers A list which appeared on the UEFA website. Clubs can list 25 players providing eight are club and country trained. But as the Light Blues only have four who fall under that category - Liam Kelly, Kevin Budinauckas, Connor Barron and John Souttar - they can’t name four over 21s.

So Matondo, currently out injured after picking up a hamstring strain in the Old Firm derby defeat on Sunday, is left out and in a shock move Danilo, signed for £6million from Feyenoord last season, is also out after having a second surgery on his knee. The Brazilian suffered a severe injury last season and had been eased back by Clement this season before the news of his setback. He scored against Ross County last month, and was an unused substitute at Parkhead on Sunday.

But the Belgian boss was forced to defend the way the striker walked when he appeared to limp out of the tunnel at Hampden before the Champions League qualifier against Dynamo Kyiv in a social media post later deleted by the club.

Many felt the former Feyenoord man was limping and were concerned he was still suffering from the knee injury he sustained during a clash with Hearts at Tynecastle last December. But Clement said: “Dani always has that kind of walk - look from the moment when he came into the club.

"I’ve been watching him for a long time. I wanted to get him to Brugge when he was at Ajax and wasn’t playing there and he had that walk also at that moment so nobody has to worry about that. There’s nothing going on with him. "

Less of a surprise is that Ianis Hagi is also excluded with Clement