An update has emerged on Rangers left-back Borna Barisic, regarding his availability on Boxing Day...

What's the latest?

The club's official Twitter account, via RangersNews, posted a gallery of pictures from training this week and the Croatian international was in action whilst wearing festive attire.

He was absent from the matchday squad as the Gers beat Dundee United in the Premiership last weekend. Prior to that clash, Gio Van Bronckhorst revealed that he was carrying an illness, saying:

“He’s okay. He was just not feeling well. He’s not injured.”

The Dutchman did not mention him by name in his pre-match press conference for this game, but admitted that he had no new blows to deal with. He said:

"Leon (Balogun) will join in the session today and we will see if he is fit for Sunday, no fresh injury concerns."

Buzzing

Rangers fans will surely be buzzing with this news as his inclusion in training suggests that he will be available to face St Mirren on Boxing Day. Given that he was not out with a physical injury last weekend, he may be able to come straight back into the team if he is well enough to be training at 100%.

This could be a big boost to the Gers as they were forced to play Nathan Patterson out of position at left-back last weekend. As per SofaScore, the youngster lost five of his nine duels and failed with three of his four attempted dribbles, whilst losing possession of the ball 18 times. This suggests that he was caught out defensively in terms of his physical strength and he was unable to show off his quality with the ball at his feet.

Barisic, meanwhile, has won an impressive 62% of his duels over the course of the campaign, making 2.3 tackles and interceptions per match. He has also completed 67% of his attempted dribbles, whilst creating 1.9 chances per game and averaging a SofaScore rating of 7.26 in the Premiership.

This highlights the consistent quality the defender brings to the Rangers team and why his potential return against St Mirren could be a big boost for van Bronckhorst. Fans will surely be delighted to see him in contention to feature in order to see his talent back out on the pitch, winning tackles and creating chances for his teammates.

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