Michael Beale praises Rangers' 'mentality' as injury list grows during Hibernian victory

Michael Beale hopes for better luck on the injury front at Rangers next season as he confirmed Connor Goldson will be out for 10 weeks

The 30-year-old centre-back missed the 3-1 Premiership clash with Hibernian at Easter Road on Sunday with a foot injury picked up in the victory over Celtic last weekend.

Beale praised the mentality of his side as "absolutely fantastic" after Alfredo Morelos, Glen Kamara and Scott Wright were added to the list of absentees with Rabbi Matondo on the bench but unable to come on.

On-loan attacker Malik Tillman is back at Bayern Munich with a hamstring problem which has ended his season while Ben Davies, Ryan Kent, Borna Barisic, Antonio Colak are all out.

Kemar Roofe, Tom Lawrence, Steven Davis and Filip Helander were also missing and have been long-term absentees.

Nico Raskin had to be substituted before the hour mark due to injury.

On Goldson's issue, Beale said: "He’ll be out for about 10 weeks. He had a funny land on his foot with a couple of minutes to go last week. He wanted to play on.

"Afterwards, we’ve had it scanned and seen a specialist so he’ll probably be about six weeks where he’s got to try and stay off it and then a four-week, five-week rehab back into the start of next season.

"All going well, he’ll be available for the first game of next season, albeit he might have a slightly modified pre-season compared to the others.

"This season seems to have been the worst season ever for the club, or certainly in my times associated with the club.

"Hopefully, that’s out of the way and next season we get a clean bill of health."

Skipper James Tavernier celebrated his 400th competitive appearance for Rangers by beating Hibs keeper David Marshall with a 30-yard free-kick in the 33rd minute before attacker Ianis Hagi doubled the visitors' lead in the 55th minute with his first goal since January, 2022, before his lengthy absence due to a knee injury.

Midfielder Todd Cantwell added a third in the 88th minute before Hibs defender Paul Hanlon reduced the deficit in added time.

Beale said: “The mentality of the group today was absolutely fantastic because the preparation couldn’t have been any worse.

“We lost Alfredo and Glen Kamara in training on Saturday, Rabbi was on the bench but wasn’t able to go on, Scott Wright we lost overnight as well.

“Scott Arfield came on but is playing through a problem, so actually coming into the game - and knowing Hibs are in such good form, unbeaten in four - I thought it might be an interesting day for us.

“I thought we were clearly the better team.

“Hibs, obviously, are fighting for a European place but you didn’t feel that in the game because I thought we were comfortable throughout, certainly after James scored the free kick.

“I was really pleased with the goals, for James in his 400th game that was a fantastic moment from him again as a captain to get us in front.

“That was Ianis Hagi’s first goal in fifteen months and after what he’s been through I’m delighted for him.

“And then Todd again. But I would probably say that today, strangely really because we were dominant in terms of having the ball, I thought John Souttar was outstanding."

Lee Johnson's side remain four points behind fourth-placed Hearts and six behind Aberdeen, with European places potentially available up to fifth place in the league as long as Celtic beat Inverness in the Scottish Cup final

Hibs host Celtic on Wednesday before the Edinburgh derby against Hearts on the final day of the season and boss Lee Johnson believes European football is still a possibility.

He said: "I think it's obviously on, because there's the potential that fifth is available as well. Celtic are a top team so you'd expect them to be super competitive in a cup final and all of us in the mix will be hoping that Celtic win that game for that very reason.

"But it's going to be an important time for us over the next four days and that's why we need everybody.

"It needs to be a club performance as well as individuals and I include the fans in that."

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