Malik Tillman faces a race against time to be fit for the League Cup Final next weekend.
The Rangers star misses out against Livingston today with a slight issue with his calf and hamstring and will now be touch and go ahead of facing Celtic at Hampden in just eight days time. He was not able to be named in the squad for the Tony Macaroni Arena clash today with his involvement next weekend also no means certain.
The USA international has been a key performer under Michael Beale while he was also one of the shining light sunder Giovanni van Bronckhorst before his axing from the club. Speaking on Sportsound, Beale said: "[Malik] Tillman had a slight problem with his calf and his hamstring. Add that to John Lundstram's ankle and Ryan Jack having a problem with his calf, it's not ideal with the schedule we have got right now.
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"We couldn't use him today but hopefully the weekend off helps him be available for next week but that is no means certain at this moment in time."
Speaking ahead of today's clash, Beale added: “It will be an extremely difficult test, obviously they know the surface and the pitch, I like going there because we take a great number of fans and they are close to the pitch, they have an impact on the game.
“We know that David [Martindale] will have his team fired up, it is important that we go there and put on a strong away performance. Our last away performance in the league was away to Hearts and it was our best performance to date, so I am looking for somewhere around that, certainly out of possession.
"You just play the game that is in front of you, we have got a week’s preparation into the cup final, the game on Saturday then Sunday is a lot of time, I would prefer us to have strong rhythm going into that game.
“The lovely thing with us at the moment is that we have got a third of the season to go, everything is to play for.
“We are in a good place compared to where we were a couple of months ago, our squad and results look stronger, and the trophies are there still to be won.”
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