Rangers have been handed a boost with the news that Cyriel Dessers will not be involved in the African Cup of Nations.
The Ibrox striker has not been selected by Nigeria for the upcoming international tournament in the early months of 2024.
The 29-year-old has been leading the line for the Ibrox club in recent weeks with both Kemar Roofe and Danilo out injured.
He will be supported by the arrival of Fabio Silva on loan from Wolves on January 1, but he is in line to start against Celtic in the Old Firm derby tomorrow.
Dessers will go into the upcoming winter break knowing that he won't be jetting off on international duty after the Super Eagles squad for AFCON next month was announced today.
He failed to make the 25-man squad. Former Rangers players Joe Aribo and Umar Sadiq are involved, though.
Rangers will be without top scorer Abdallah Sima for a period of January though, after the on-loan Brighton attacker was selected by Senegal.
He has been called up to their 27-man squad for the competition which runs from January 13 to February 11.
READ MORE: Clement gives Rangers transfer update as he hails Fabio Silva signing
Asked about Sima, Clement said in today's press conference: "That's not a nice question! That's a mean one, to be honest. No, I'm not happy that he's selected but I understand.
"I've been an international myself and it was a great honour to play for my country. I was always really proud every time it happened so I understand that it's really important for the players.
"As a club, as a manager, nothing to do to go against it, it's strange to have a tournament during a season. We're not the only team in the world in that way also so it's things you need to accept and to be happy for him that he gets the respect out of his country and he deserves it."
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