A big claim has been made over Rangers centre-back Filip Helander, regarding when he could play his next game for the Ibrox club.

What's the latest?

Injury expert Ben Dinnery has predicted that the Gers beast will make a return to first-team action early in 2022 as he recovers from his knee surgery.

The Sweden international has been out since September and has missed all of Gio van Bronckhorst's games in Glasgow to date. Dinnery has now outlined what he is expecting Helander to go through in the coming weeks.

He told Football Insider:

“He will start off in some bounce games, maybe some behind-closed-doors friendlies.

“Once he has come through those games, you want to build up his load and then introduce him into the first team. That’s the ideal scenario. But there are always things that will influence those decisions. It could be injuries to key players, important fixtures, setbacks etcetera.

“Sometimes it doesn’t go to plan. We are talking about a time-pressured environment with pressure from stakeholders. There’s also pressure to get results, pressure in terms of the new manager being there too.

“But if all goes to plan, early 2022 is realistic. That’s great news for him after a few months on the sidelines.”

Fans surely buzzing

Rangers fans will surely be buzzing after this positive update on Helander, with an expert outlining his possible schedule ahead of his return. The supporters will want to see the big defender back in action as quickly as possible as his fitness will be a huge boost to van Bronckhorst's side.

Last season, he averaged a sublime SofaScore rating of 7.10 in the Scottish Premiership. He won a whopping 68% of his duels over the course of the campaign, showing off his defensive quality and consistently as he played 22 matches for the club.

Former Ibrox boss Steven Gerrard previously praised the gem for his leadership skills. The retired midfielder said: "I think he has shown great leadership. He had a little bit of an ankle issue before the international break and never played for Sweden.

"I decided to go with Katic at Hearts for the real physicality of Ikpeazu and then use Fil’s experience and leadership away to Porto, which I knew was going to be more of a technical game. One that needed experience."

Earlier this year, the current Aston Villa boss also lauded his positioning as "outstanding" to further emphasise how highly he rated the defender and how well the Swedish-born defender performed last term.

This is why supporters will love this update on his fitness and the prospect of him returning early in 2022. They will be buzzing to see him back out on the pitch and putting in excellent performances again, showing that he can be a crucial player going forward in spite of this injury.

Gaining a player like that could also be a seismic advantage in their bid to win the Premiership crown so supporters should be beaming from ear to ear that a key man will soon return.

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