Rangers manager Steven Gerrard has revealed that defender Filip Helander will miss the remaining games in 2019 through injury and is likely to be out for more than six weeks.

The Swedish defender suffered a foot injury during the League Cup final defeat to Celtic earlier this month and is now set for an extended spell on the sidelines.

Gerrard said that the injury was fairly rare, with the specialist who examined Helander only having seen a similar case on a few occasions.

"Filip won't be seen again until after the winter break," he said. "It's a foot issue.

"I'm not a doctor but I'm told it's a unique injury.

"The doctor told me that in his 25-year experience in medicine, he had only seen this issue on a couple of occasions. It's a difficult one to put an exact date on the time he will be out.

"But he is going to be in a boot for four to six weeks. That's the starter pack so let's go from there and see how it progresses.

"I think he's been in the boot for a couple of weeks now so he will be in a boot until after Christmas and then it will be a case of building the fitness back up and whether there is a reaction from the injury because it's quite a rare one."

Rangers play Hibernian at Easter Road on Friday night before a home match against Kilmarnock on Boxing Day and a trip to Celtic Park three days later.

The Ibrox side will be without Alfredo Morelos for the trip to Hibs after the Colombian was sent off after gesturing to Motherwell fans last weekend. Gerrard said that the player had apologised to his teammates and would learn from being suspended again. Jermain Defoe will start on Friday night.

"I think Alfredo has apologised to his team-mates after the Motherwell situation, but that's not important now," he said.

"We have to focus on what's available to us. Alfredo has been different. You can see in his face he's disappointed not to be available. He's not a man who hides that disappointment very well.

"You can see even in today's session that he's gutted.

"But we believe we have got the squad capable of coping without any individual.

"It's OK me sitting here saying that, the players have got to go prove that.

"Jermain's name in the game speaks for itself. We'll pick a team that's capable of getting the result we want from Hibs if they perform to their best."