Rangers have been dealt a huge blow ahead of their game against Alashkert on Thursday afternoon, with a number of first-team players unable to travel.

What's the word?

It was confirmed by The Athletic's Rangers correspondent Jordan Campbell that Steven Gerrard, along with several first-team players, are unable to travel to Armenia for the second leg after registering a positive Covid test.

Allan McGregor, Jon McLaughlin, James Tavernier, Calvin Bassey, Ryan Kent and Scott Wright are all unavailable for selection in Yerevan, and with Rangers holding a slender 1-0 advantage from the first leg at Ibrox last week, this puts their qualification hopes at serious risk.

A huge blow for Rangers?

You would hope that, even without these first-team players, Rangers will still have too much for their Armenian opponents but after scraping past them at Ibrox, it could prove to be a very tricky afternoon for the Teddy Bears.

As well as missing players through the virus, the Gers will also be without Ryan Jack and Fashion Sakala through injury, whilst John Lundstram and Kemar Roofe are both suspended.

This leaves Gerrard with very few options to choose from the bench and it is also unclear how the 41-year-old manager will share his input on things from home, with Gary McAllister likely to be the one giving the team talk and instructions from the side of the pitch.

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After already blowing their chance of reaching the Champions League group stages with an embarrassing home defeat against 10-man Malmo recently, Rangers fans will surely be worried that these circumstances could lead to another defeat, which would leave them without any form of European football for the 2021/22 campaign.

And, in other news... Gerrard could be set for huge Rangers transfer blow