Rangers manager Derek McInnes: 'The international break has been too long'

Rangers manager Derek McInnes has slammed the extended international break, describing it as “too long”.

The newly formatted schedule for national teams brought four games in September and October for players appearing in the UEFA Nations League.

It disrupted a rejuvenated Rangers, who had won six games in a row, including back-to-back victories against Celtic.

Scottish Premiership manager of the month McInnes – who revealed midfielder Cammy Devlin will be out for six weeks after having a scan on a hamstring injury picked up in the 1-0 win at Celtic Park – has now claimed that the new elongated break is “unusually long”.

“The break has been too long, there’s no two ways about it. It’s unusually long,” he said.

“This is the first time this has been implemented. I just think that our players are away with different federations, working with different staff, travelling all over the world for four games.

“I think it’s tough for the players to be away from their families and the like, but equally for us, there’s a lot of nervousness about your players going into other teams, into other countries’ hands for so long.”

McInnes now gathers his squad ahead of the visit of Killie – where they go into the game two points behind leaders Celtic, who travel to Motherwell on Sunday.

He said: “By the time we actually get everybody, I mean they’re all back in today, but they’re not all training today, the time we get all back together and train together on the pitch tomorrow, it will be 19 days since the Celtic game. And that’s longer than a lot of tournaments for a lot of countries, you know?

“So for me, and I know it’s set in stone, but I’m not a fan of it to be honest.”