GIOVANNI VAN BRONCKHORST has revealed defender John Souttar will be out of action until after the World Cup after suffering another injury setback at Ibrox.
The Scotland stopper has made just one appearance for Rangers following his move from Hearts this summer and faces a lengthy spell out of action once again.
Souttar suffered serious Achilles injuries earlier in his career and missed several fixtures towards the end of last term after sustaining an ankle knock.
The 26-year-old was replaced by James Sands just 67 minutes into his debut on the opening day of the Premiership campaign as Van Bronckhorst's side came from behind to beat Livingston.
He has not been seen in a blue jersey since as supporters have been left in the dark over the fitness of one of the seven players that arrived at Ibrox during the close season.
Fellow summer signing Ben Davies is available for selection ahead of the trip to face Hearts but Filip Helander remains a long-term absentee for boss Van Bronckhorst.
Jon McLaughlin and Tom Lawrence will also miss out at Tynecastle, while Kemar Roofe is continuing to work towards a return to action after several months in the treatment room.
Van Bronckhorst said: "Ben is back in the squad. With John Souttar, I think we will expect him after the World Cup so that is still very long term still.
"The same for Filip, I don’t know the timescale for his injury. Ben we have back in the squad and Kemar Roofe is training now, big parts of the training session with us.
"We need to keep assessing him in his load as well to see when he is back. Hopefully it is sooner rather than later, especially for Kemar himself but also for me as a coach.
"I have a lot of sympathy for John. He has the problems he had before. Still he brought the problem with him when he changed teams.
"We needed to operate on him again. He feels much better now. It is always difficult to play with pain so it is the first time in many months that he is pain free now and he can do his rehab.
"Hopefully that is the rehab of all the difficult times he had and we can bring him back to full fitness and get him going."
