Concern for Rangers as Nico Raskin suffers ankle injury in friendly

Rangers boss Philippe Clement is facing an anxious wait to learn the extent of an ankle injury sustained by Nico Raskin in Saturday’s 2-1 friendly defeat by Ajax in the Netherlands.

The Belgian midfielder had to be replaced by Connor Barron two minutes before the break as Gers went down to goals from Kian Fitz-Jim and Branco van den Boomen either side of Tom Lawrence’s equaliser.

Raskin was seen leaving the Mulderssingel stadium in Wezep on crutches. Asked about his injury afterwards, Clement told Rangers TV: “We don’t know yet. He twisted his ankle. I hope it’s not too bad because we cannot lose players. It was an unlucky duel. We will see.”

There was positive news for Rangers as Danilo came on in the 76th minute for his first appearance since sustaining a serious knee injury at Hearts in early December.

“It’s great to see his smile again after seven horror months for him because he loves so much to play football,” said Clement. “It was important to give him these minutes and build him up for the season.”

Despite the result, Clement was pleased with the way Rangers performed against their Eredivisie opponents.

“It was an interesting and difficult test, and that was what we wanted,” said the Light Blues boss. “It was a game on a European level against a good team.

“We knew also that they were further into their preparation because they have qualification games on July 25. It was a really good test and I saw a lot of interesting things and positive things.

“We created really good chances against them with a few really good combinations through the midfield.

“Several midfielders are already reaching a very good level, like (Mohamed) Diomande, Connor Barron, Tom Lawrence and Scott Wright came in and was dangerous in the second half.”

Rangers have spent the past week in the Netherlands and Clement feels the work his players have undertaken at their training camp will stand them in good stead ahead of their Premiership opener at Hearts in three weeks and their upcoming bid to qualify for the Champions League.

“It’s been a really tough week,” he said. “They did a lot of training and had heavy legs so we dropped down a bit on Friday to create some freshness again as otherwise it would have been a problem and we’d have risked injuries.

“They had a really big load this week, the whole squad.”