Kranjcar bounced back after struggling during his first few weeks at Glasgow Rangers, but was then dealt a cruel blow.
Former Rangers midfielder Gavin Rae has admitted that he could not believe it when he heard that Niko Kranjcar had been ruled out for the rest of the season due to injury, the Evening Times reports.
Rae saw his Ibrox career virtually wrecked by injury as he spent nearly two years on the sidelines before leaving in 2007, having made just 28 Scottish Premiership appearances across four seasons.
Ranger’s Niko Kranjcar in action with Burnley’s Scott Arfield
So the 38-year-old will no doubt have plenty of sympathy for the Croatian. The Evening Times reports that he will miss the rest of the campaign due to a knee injury, and Rae, who has been back to watch his former side in recent weeks, highlighted how the timing of the injury was particularly cruel for Kranjcar.
“I couldn’t believe it when I heard he got injured. It seems to be the curse of joining Rangers,” he said, as reported by the Evening Times.
Burnley’s Andre Gray in action with Rangers’ Niko Kranjcar
“I was back in the UK six weeks ago and I went along to the Partick Thistle game.
“He scored that day but you could also see he was really coming onto a game.
“He was dictating thing and his quality was shining through and now he has a bad injury.”
Rangers manager Mark Warburton
Mark Warburton will now be hoping that the playmaker shows the same level of determination to come back from injury as he did to recover from the slow start he made to life at Ibrox.
The 32-year-old initially struggled to make an impact on games, but had been beginning to turn a corner in the weeks leading up to the problem, and it had appeared that he may have the potential to be the kind of player that could inspire the Gers back into title contention in future.
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