Russell Martin: Hamza Igamane stayed on Rangers bench due to warm-up injury

Russell Martin insists he has to trust the validity of Hamza Igamane’s claim that a warm-up injury rendered him unable to come off the bench in Rangers’ 1-1 draw with St Mirren.

The Light Blues began the William Hill Premiership match in Paisley without a recognised centre-forward – midfielder Thelo Aasgaard was asked to lead the line – but as the visitors trailed in the second half to a Jonah Ayunga goal after 33 minutes, the Gers boss turned to his dugout.

However, the 22-year-old Moroccan striker, who was subject to a bid from an unspecified club last week, indicated a quad problem picked up in the warm-up.

Brazilian striker Danilo did come on as one of five changes but it was teenage substitute Findlay Curtis who scored the equaliser which left the Light Blues with three successive league draws since the start of the season, as they prepare for the second leg of their Champions League play-off against Club Brugge in Belgium on Wednesday night, where they look to claw back a 3-1 deficit.

Asked about Igamane, who joined from AS FAR in 2024 and who has made just three substitute appearances this season, Martin said: “I wanted to bring him on around 60 minutes, and he said he has a sore quad so he can’t come on.

“He wouldn’t be on the bench if he’s not fit. So he said he’d done it warming up.

“We turned down a bid this week, but we’ll assess his injury and I have to trust Hamza so we’ll see what happens.

“As a human being I have to trust that he has done it in the warm up like he said and we’ll see.”

Asked if Igamane came into Martin’s category of players with one eye on the exit door, the former Southampton boss said: “I think when you’ve had a bid turned down in the week and then this happens, maybe.”

Martin then brought up injured 30-year-old Nigeria forward Cyriel Dessers, who was also subject of a bid earlier in the transfer window.

The Ibrox boss said: “I think it happens in football, but I’ll go back to Cyriel (Dessers) again.

“He’s worked really hard to get fit, hasn’t quite been fit, he’ll probably be fit for Wednesday. So whilst he’s made it really clear what his intention would be or what his desire would be, there’s been no problem, none.

“He trains properly, performs with the team, been great, but everyone’s different.

“Every human being is different. He (Dessers) is quite experienced. Some of the guys are really young so the situation will be cleared up in the next 10 days (end of transfer window).

“I’m quite calm about it. We’ll assess Hamza. Hopefully, it’s not too bad and we’ll see what happens.”

Then asked if he meant Dessers had asked to leave Rangers, Martin said: “No, Cyriel’s not asked to leave. He’s not asked to leave once.

“But we’ve had a lot of discussions about it so we’ll see what happens.”

It was another “frustrating” afternoon for Martin who said: “The second half was more like it should look but we conceded a really poor goal.

“We have to have the courage to play football all the time.”

St Mirren’s Stephen Robinson was proud of his players’ efforts.

He said: “I thought we were outstanding in the first half again, created numerous chances and just a little bit of decision making, lacking that quality in certain decisions.

“Credit to Rangers, they come out second half, made changes. Spooked us maybe a little bit for 20, 25 minutes.

“So that’s something we need to improve on, but overall, we’re happy with the point, we believe it could have been more, but they may feel the exact same.”