If Philippe Clement wasn’t desperate before, he must now be wondering what else he can do to buy himself some time at Rangers.
Until the squad is more robust and the usual suspects are moved on, the manager will continue to have selection problems.
Things don’t seem to be improving for Clement either with Rangers apparently set to have two key players missing for the trip to face Dundee.
Why Rangers duo are at the centre of SFA suspension riddle
Dujon Sterling has joined a lengthy injury list at the back, however, it is the disciplinary records of Nicolas Raskin and Robin Propper that is a cause for concern.
According to the SFA’s Judicial Panel Protocol for 2024/25:
“A player accumulating six league cautions will be automatically suspended for one match if he has accumulated those six cautions in (up to and including) the number of matches in the relevant League as set out in the table below (19 for the Scottish Premiership).
“The suspension applies in the same League Competition as the cautionable offences were incurred and is effective from the 7th day following the date of the match when the sixth cautionable offence occurred.”
The problem is, despite the Hibs game being matchday 20, the rule above implies that it is the number of individual games played that is used to determine whether or not a player should be banned.
Are Raskin and Propper suspended?
For Raskin, he has been caught either way with his sixth booking of the season coming against Celtic on matchday 19 and his 17th league game.
This means that he is confirmed as missing the league clash with Dundee.
As for Propper, he has featured in 14 Premiership fixtures with four games spent on the bench and earned his sixth booking against Hibs on matchday 20, one game after the threshold rises.
It wouldn’t be the Dundee game that he would miss though, it would be St Johnstone at home on the 12th of January.
All of this is hypothetical, because if the bar is set at 19 games in terms of the club, rather than the individual, Propper won’t be at risk unless he reaches 12 yellow cards before the top six split, despite Ian Crocker on Sky Sports commentary suggesting that the Dutchman is now banned.
As always, anything to do with the rules and regulations of Scottish football is clear as mud and riddled with grey areas.
Related Topics