GIOVANNI van Bronckhorst has expressed hope the return of Cedric Itten and Kemar Roofe will help Rangers cope with the loss of Alfredo Morelos in their forthcoming fixtures and maintain their push for the Scottish title.

Itten made his first start since being recalled from his loan spell at Greuther Furth in Germany in the Scottish Cup fourth round match against Stirling Albion at Ibrox on Friday evening and scored his side’s third goal.

Roofe, who has been sidelined by an injury since the Europa League game against Lyon at the start of December, also came on for Brandon Barker in the second-half of the 4-0 triumph.

Van Bronckhorst was pleased to see both men involved in the cup tie as Morelos will miss the cinch Premiership matches against Livingston, Ross County and Celtic in the next 10 days.

The South American striker, who has netted 11 times in all competitions in the 2021/22 campaign, has been called up by Colombia for their World Cup qualifiers against Peru and Argentina.

“I think for Cedric’s confidence it’s good he got a call,” said Van Bronckhorst. “We called him back from his loan spell in Germany because I don’t think it was working for him or us.

“We wanted to have more options in attack and with Morelos not available for the coming games and Itten and Kemar back we have options. We need all the options we have for the coming weeks as it is going to be a tight schedule with hard games.

“I’m happy that Cedric scored and is back with us. Will I use Cedric? Yes, we called him back as he has qualities that are different from Morelos and Roofe. In that way sometimes a game will need a striker like him.

“We didn’t bring him back just to be on the bench here, we brought him back to give the squad something extra and something different. I’m sure that his qualities will be needed for the rest of the season.

“Kemar is feeling good and it was nice to give him some minutes. He played against Hibs and then started against Lyon and then he has been out since then. I’m glad he is back as he is one of the players who has worked hard to get back to full fitness as soon as possible.” 

Van Bronckhorst, who also welcomed back Leon Balogun on Friday night, was pleased to see Fashion Sakala get his name on the scoresheet against Albion late on and revealed the Zambian forward will get game time during Rangers’ hectic schedule of matches.

“I have used Sakala many times and he is a player who has a lot of qualities,” he said. “He’s not afraid to take people on, he is fast and he did well against Stirling.

“He has things to improve on, but I am here to improve the players and he is open to that. He is a great person to work with and I’m happy he got his goal and he is one of the players who will get games in the coming weeks. I think he is a threat to defenders.”

Van Bronckhorst, who remains undefeated in the nine domestic fixtures he has taken charge of since succeeding Steven Gerrard as manager in November, was also pleased to give fringe players Barker and Jack Simpson a start at Ibrox.

“Some players haven’t played a lot under me or the previous manager,” he said. “The players work hard in training to get a chance so it is nice to give them a run out.

“We had an option to use them and we wanted to make a few changes to the team. For Brandon and Jack it was good for them to play in a competitive game.”