Glasgow Rangers were without Jon Toral for the Scottish Cup semi-final and the league clash at Ibrox the following week.
Jon Toral has told Rangers’ official website that he was supposed to start the Scottish Cup semi-final before suffering an injury, and described the experience of watching the recent Old Firm games from the sidelines as painful.
Toral has endured a fairly underwhelming time since arriving at Ibrox on loan during the January transfer window, showing only brief glimpses of his undeniable quality.
Nevertheless, the Spaniard has confirmed that Pedro Caixinha had planned to include him in his starting line-up for the recent Hampden Park showdown but then had to change his plans as he suffered a rib injury shortly before the contest.
“I was due to start the semi-final so it was a big disappointment to miss out on arguably the biggest game of my career to date, a semi-final and an Old Firm as well,” he told the club’s official website.
Rangers manager Pedro Caixinha
Unfortunately for the Gers, the back-to-back games with Celtic will not be remembered fondly with the semi-final seeing the Light Blues barely turn up on their way to a 2-0 defeat, while the Ibrox meeting saw the Scottish Premiership champions run out 5-1 victors.
And Toral has admitted that the experience of watching from afar has been extremely difficult.
Rangers’ Kenny Miller
“I arguably feel even worse not playing because I am not able to help them on the pitch when the results aren’t going our way. Not being able to help them on the field has been painful,” he added.
Though it seems highly unlikely that either result would have been any different had Toral featured, his presence in the team may have provided the side with some much-needed creativity that could have caused the Hoops some more problems at the very least.
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