Rangers hero Alan Hutton has pinpointed that the Light Blues' humiliation at home to Liverpool last week was down to Connor Goldson going off injured in the first half.
The former Brighton centre-back has been all but an ever-present for the Gers since his move to Ibrox back in 2018. He'd played in every minute of every game so far this season bar the Scottish League Cup tie against Queen of the South back in August.
But after picking up a hamstring injury against the Reds last week, the Wolverhampton-born star is set to miss up to four months of action in what is a huge blow to manager Gio van Bronckhorst, who already has fellow centre-backs John Souttar and Filip Helander out of action at the moment. And Hutton says that although Goldson will continue to have a huge influence off the pitch, his spell on the sidelines was the reason for Rangers' worst European defeat and home defeat in their history.
"It is a huge blow there is no getting away from that,” he told Football Insider.
“He is definitely a leader within the camp. He will still do that off the pitch. On it, you can hear him organising the back four, the boys in front of him.
“You could see how much of a loss he was in the Liverpool game. When he was not there it kind of fell apart towards the end of the game. He is a huge miss.“
Van Bronckhorst gave an update on Goldson last week, lamenting the departure of one of his leaders "Goldson and [Ryan] Jack have injuries, they both have muscular issues and won't be back in the short term," he said.
"[Ben] Davies had a knock but could continue, he has no injury and I expect him to be involved tomorrow. It's always a blow, Connor has played all the games since I arrived," he said. "I'm not exactly sure yet on Connor (Goldson), but it will be several months out by looks of it."
