Jordan Jones will not be playing for Steven Gerrard’s Rangers in the Europa League group stage.
It’s been an eventful few days in the Rangers career of Jordan Jones. For all the wrong reasons mind you.
First there was the most reckless of red cards in the Old Firm derby after a horror lunge on Celtic full-back Mortiz Bauer. To make matters worse, the former Kilmarnock winger injured his knee ligaments at precisely the moment he clattered, bull in a china shop-style, into the Austrian international.
And to complete a horror week, Jones has now been left out of Rangers’ squad for the Europa League group stage.
The summer signing was one of a handful of senior stars who will be left twiddling their thumbs at home, including forgotten man Greg Docherty and third-choice goalkeeper Andy Firth.
The Daily Record claims that Jones could return within a month from his knee problem but the Europa League group stage runs from September until Christmas, not just four weeks.
Has Jones been made to pay for a costly loss of discipline which put Rangers down to 10 men in the derby? Steven Gerrard, a man who demands the highest levels of class from his players on and off the pitch, certainly wasn’t happy and rightly so.
Either way, Rangers fans think Jones’ omission might be a step too far with his Man of the Match display against Midtjylland in the qualifiers still fresh in the memory. Jones, after all, is capable of producing the sort of game-changing moments Rangers might come to rely on in a tough group.
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