Philippe Clement confident 'unlucky' Oscar Cortes will go on to impress at Rangers

Rangers manager Philippe Clement is confident Oscar Cortes will go on to have a good career at Ibrox despite the winger suffering another injury.

The Colombia international moved to Glasgow last February on a short-term loan from French side Lens but had his season ended in March with a muscle injury.

Rangers had seen enough to reach a new agreement with Lens in the summer, with Cortes returning to Ibrox on a season-long deal that has an obligation to buy included.

The 21-year-old has not been able to enjoy a run of games since, having suffered a knee injury on the first day of the Premiership that ruled him out for over a month, and was later sidelined with a shin issue.

A fresh injury saw Cortes miss the midweek win over Aberdeen, and he has now been ruled out of Sunday’s Scottish Cup match against Fraserburgh.

Clement insisted that he had no major concerns over the player’s long-term future, pointing out that there had been no recurrence of previous problems. He said that Cortes’ talent was never in question and the forward will come good.

“The injuries that he had afterwards had nothing to do with the injuries that he had last season,” the Rangers boss said.

“The decision made by everybody in the club is that he has the talent to do it, when his physical state will be in a good way. So he needs rhythm for that, he needs training for that.

“We all know that he has the football qualities. He has the right mentality, he has the right vision, and also the overview in the final third, where it is very important to have this composure.

“He showed all of that, so I don’t see any reason why he would not make a good career here at Rangers.

“I hope it’s a short-term thing. It would have been ideal that he got minutes on Sunday, but it’s part of football. It’s unlucky. Football is a sport with duels.

“He’s a strong boy. He has strong legs, but sometimes you get hard knocks, so that’s part of football, and he had a lot of bad luck the last couple of months.

“I’m disappointed for him because he’s somebody with a good mentality, who wants to work hard, who’s ambitious to make the right steps, who showed also good quality in the first weeks that he was here.

“Sometimes you can have bad luck, and I hope this is the last part of bad luck for him in his career.”