THE focus at Rangers just now as a January transfer window which will have huge implications for the future success of the Ibrox club approaches is firmly on the players who will be coming in.
Those who have arrived in the past and have not, for whatever reason, yet made a significant contribution have not, though, been forgotten about. Far from it.
Graeme Murty may well be primarily concerned with how the first team fares now that he has been confirmed as manager until the end of the season.
But he is still taking a keen interest in the progress of those who are unable, for the time being at least, to feature and that very much includes Jordan Rossiter.
Rossiter has, due to a lower back problem which has caused recurring calf and hamstring issues, hardly featured since his much-publicised move from Liverpool last year. He has made just 10 appearances in the last 19 months.
Yet, Murty has made sure the 20-year-old midfielder who he, like so many others, believes has a huge future in the game, has the support he needs to get him through his ordeal and revealed that no timescale has been put on his comeback.
“He is going through a hard time physically and psychologically,” he said. “But he’s getting fantastic support. Our medical staff are taking really, really good care of him.
“What we want to do it take away any performance anxiety or any other stresses that he has so that he keeps his focus on getting his body right and making sure he can maximise his potential.
“Part of the way to do that is to take away time limits, take away restrictions on it and just make sure that holistically you look at everything in his life and around him that can put him in a positive place.
“We are not sure where we are time wise. We were looking at Jordan progressing. He’s not progressing as fast as we would like or, I’m sure, he would like.”
Murty, the former Reading and Scotland, appreciates what he is going through from personal experience. “Having been injured for 18 months myself, the monotony of it, the grind of it and the fact that it never changes can really wear you down,” he said.
“So we need to make sure we give him a variety of different stimulus so that we can actually physically and psychologically take care of him as well as possible.”
The 43-year-old is optimistic their effort will be worthwhile. “I am hopeful for him, hopeful that we can get him right,” he said. “I’m hopeful we can get him fit because if we do then we’ve got a really, really good asset that deals with the football really well.
“He passes the ball brilliantly and has a fantastic pedigree. When you see him close, the sound he makes when passing the ball, just from a simple sidefoot is different. There’s just a resonance to it that’s great.
“Honestly. It’s similar to if you see someone who hits a golf shot it makes that wonderful sound when the pros hit it. It sounds totally different when we clang it down the fairway, slap it a wee bit.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel