Cyriel Dessers suffered an injury in Rangers’ 2-1 second-leg third qualifying round defeat to Viktoria Plzen.
The Nigeria international was substituted in the 54th minute due to what appeared to be a knee injury. He had to be assisted off the pitch.
Rangers head coach Russell Martin revealed the severity of the injury in an interview with Rangers TV:
“Yes, it looks like a nasty one, so he’s in a brace now. We’ll have to just wait and see over the next couple of days, have a scan and see. We’ll keep our fingers crossed it’s not too bad for the big man.”
It’s still unknown whether Dessers will be available for the Champions League playoff first leg against Club Brugge next Tuesday.
Rangers advanced to the playoffs thanks to a 3-0 first-leg win, securing a 4-2 aggregate victory over Plzen.
The last time Dessers suffered an injury was in the 2022/2023 season while playing for US Cremonese, where he was sidelined for six games due to a patellar tendon problem. That season, he missed a total of 13 matches due to injuries.
The most serious injury of Dessers’ career came in 2019 while playing for FC Utrecht in the Eredivisie, when he tore his inner knee ligament and missed 14 games.
While waiting for scan results to determine the length of Dessers’ absence, Rangers will hope to have their main striker available for the return leg in Belgium.
The Scottish side must avoid costly errors like those seen in the second leg loss to Viktoria Plzen. Following the match, Martin expressed disappointment in his side’s performance:
“I am disappointed we lost. We had some really good moments, but I’m disappointed with how many shots and chances we gave them. I’m also disappointed with how often we got into good positions around their box and didn’t execute the final pass.”
The 39-year-old also spoke about the upcoming first-leg tie against Club Brugge:
“We had an interesting game against them in pre-season, so we know a bit about each other. We have to be better than we were tonight, for sure.”
