Gerrard insists Covid breaches won’t derail European challenge

Rangers manager Steven Gerrard insists his preparations for the Europa League tie against Antwerp in Belgium have not been adversely affected by the Ibrox club having to deal with a breach of Covid-19 regulations by five of his players.

Bongani Zungu, Nathan Patterson, Calvin Bassey, Brian Kinnear and Dapo Mebude all face disciplinary action from both Rangers and the Scottish FA after attending a house party in Glasgow last weekend.

The quintet, all of whom apart from Mebude are registered in Rangers’ Europa League squad, are now self-isolating.

Gerrard, pictured, has expressed his personal disappointment in the actions of the players, admitting he feels “let down”.

Despite the furore, however, he believes his squad are more ready than ever to shine against Antwerp as Rangers bid to reach the last 16 of the tournament.

The incident comes three months after Jordan Jones and George Edmundson were handed two-week club suspensions for breaching Covid-19 protocols by attending an illegal house party. Both were subsequently handed sevenmatch bans by the SFA and were moved on loan to English clubs in January.

Gerrard said: “I will sit down with them boys face to face when we are allowed to do so.

“I feel personally let down by recent events but I am trying to move forward and focus on the important things which is to prepare the team ready for a huge game.

"We will certainly move forward from it. We are at a real critical stage in terms of the games coming up and where we are as a club.

"It won't affect us as a group. I've been absolutely delighted with the group in terms of their application.

He added: “We’ve had no disruption on the inside this week in terms of our preparation on the training pitch.“we’ve had decent numbers, even though

they have changed (in terms of ) the three or four who are normally training with us on a daily basis. But it hasn’t had any disruption in terms of our preparation. We’ve still had quality and numbers.

“We are fine, we will manage. It’s not ideal, that’s for sure. But what we have got is players with us at the moment who have got no ego. They will, if needed, sacrifice themselves to do a job for the team and the group. We will manage, we will cope and we will go from there.

“All the players are in a really good place. I must say the standard of the training has been fantastic.

“We have taken some of the younger players away from the group and we’ve obviously had the situation this week where the group has been shortened down through no fault of our own in terms of the players still involved.”

The former England captain, who has Alfredo Morelos and fellow striker Kemar Roofe, pictured, back after suspension, added: "Since the weekend after another positive result and a clean sheet, the players had a day off and we went straight into our Antwerp preparation.

"I don't know whether the boys have got the bit between the teeth but they certainly look in the zone and focused and ready to put in a performance.

"Now I can only gauge the mood and where I think they are at and I am really content where we are at, going in to the game.

“I can see a twinkle in the boys’ eyes, they are really ready to go. If training is anything to go by, we are about to put in a performance. The level, intensity and quality has gone through the roof. So we are going into it really excited.”