Glasgow Rangers manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst was recently hit with a frustrating injury blow as summer signing Ridvan Yilmaz has been ruled out until after the World Cup.

The Turkish international had finally won his place in the team at left-back and pulled up in the first half of the 4-1 win against Aberdeen in the Premiership, which forced him to come off within the first 10 minutes.

He is now facing a number of weeks on the sidelines and will need to prove himself yet again in order to get in the side ahead of Croatian defender Borna Barisic.

Whilst they are the current first-team left-backs available to the manager, van Bronckhorst could look to the academy team to provide cover whilst Yilmaz is out injured.

Rangers signed Romanian youth international Kevin Ciubotaru back in February and the Dutch head coach could strike gold by unearthing his talent in the coming weeks, months, and years.

The 18-year-old has been a regular in the B team for the Light Blues this season as he has played four times in the Lowland League and twice in the UEFA Youth League.

Kinetic, the academy Rangers signed him from, co-founder Harry Hudson previously heaped praise on the youngster, saying:

"[He] plays left back or can play left wing-back. Very attack-minded. [A] powerful runner, [a] good dribbler, gets forward well and [he] contributes really well in the offensive phases.
"Defensively he’s worked really hard with us so he covers both those sides of his game. He’s very good aerially, a strong player with an exceptionally high ceiling so looking forward to seeing how he gets on and watching his progress at Rangers." These quotes suggest that he is a young player with a lot of potential as he can make an impact at both ends of the pitch from left-back, with Hudson believing that he has offensive and defensive qualities.

The full-back, who has described himself as a "robot", has plenty of time left ahead of him to develop and improve before making the step up to first-team level. At the age of 18, van Bronckhorst can work with the gem on the training pitch to get him to a point where he is comfortable enough to play regulars in the senior squad.

For now, he could be named on the bench in the absence of Yilmaz to get a feel for what it is like to be in the squad for a Premiership match, with a view to him playing matches in the future.

Van Bronckhorst could strike gold by unearthing the teen's talent as the gem appears to be a player with high potential and he could be a star for Rangers in the future if he can adapt to playing professional football, after excelling at youth level.