Rangers have been hit with a worrying injury setback over Ibrox central defender Filip Helander...

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Gers boss Gio van Bronckhorst has revealed why the towering centre-half was forced off on Sunday, as Leon King came on for him at half-time in the 4-0 rout.

Kemar Roofe scored a hat-trick and Joe Aribo found the top corner with a stunning strike as the Light Blues moved back to within six points of their rivals at the top of the table, but they now have an injury concern to deal with.

The head coach told the Daily Record: “Helander fell a bit awkward so he is having a scan now.

“Hopefully in the next few hours or by tomorrow we’ll know the extent of his injury.”

Van Bronckhorst will be gutted

Van Bronckhorst will surely be gutted with this setback as it potentially leaves him without another strong option heading into a busy period of matches.

Rangers are still competing in the Premiership, the League Cup and the Europa League, for now, and will need as many players available as possible to share the load. The head coach will want to rotate the team, as he did against St. Mirren to ensure that he is not overloading players and this blow to Helander could leave him with one less player to pick from.

Van Bronckhorst is not blessed with natural centre-back options as it is, with Connor Goldson and Leon Balogun the only senior players aside from Helander. Calvin Bassey, who is a left-back by trade, can play there, though, and he has academy prospect Leon King waiting in the wings.

However, the boss will not want to put too much pressure on the youngster so soon into his career with huge matches coming up this week against Braga in Europe and Celtic in the cup. This could be a season-defining week and not having the Sweden international available is, therefore, a big blow as he could be needed in the cup if any injuries are sustained in the European clash.

Last season in the Premiership, Helander averaged an excellent SofaScore rating of 7.10 for the Gers across 22 appearances. This shows that he does have the quality to be a top performer for the club and that is why losing him over the next few weeks would leave van Bronckhorst gutted, with the head now surely now praying that it is not a serious injury for the defender.

Fingers crossed...

AND in other news, Forget Roofe: Rangers ace with 5 key passes showed GVB he's no longer "useless" today...