PHILIPPE Clement has admitted he may not know his Rangers team for the Scottish Gas Scottish Cup final until 24 hours before the Ibrox club play Celtic at Hampden.
The Belgian has concerns over the fitness of Leon Balogun, Borna Barisic, Rabbi Matondo, Abdallah Sima, John Souttar and Ridvan Yilmaz ahead of the meeting with the Scottish champions.
Elsewhere, John Lundstram has missed the last two cinch Premiership games because of the suspension he picked up when he was red carded in the 2-1 league defeat to the Parkhead club last weekend.
Clement, whose side were held to a 3-3 draw by Hearts in their final top flight outing at Tynecastle this afternoon, is unsure who will be available to start for the Viaplay Cup winners in Mount Florida and will not make any early calls on his line-up.
“I don't know yet what the story will be,” he said. “A player could be fit on Friday and play some minutes and I need to wait until that moment. I don't like this situation, but it's been that way for a few weeks.
“We will see. It was positive Abda and Ridvan could take some minutes today. We will see if Leon can be fit again. We are going to see in the week so in that way it is difficult for me to plan the starting 11 and what players are going to make it.
Clement praised the impact which Rangers youngsters Robbie Fraser, Leon King and Ross McCausland, who scored a second-half equaliser, had against Hearts and expressed hope they can continue to feature going forward.
“I saw a team fighting and giving their best, also the young boys,” he said. “We need to pay attention to the really positive things if you see how the young boys are growing into the team.
“Ross scored a really good goal and that was a player last year who had trained only five times with the first team all season. Now he has played a lot.
“It's a pity he was kicked off the pitch for eight to ten weeks when his momentum was growing. I see positive things also about Robbie, Cole McKinnon, Johnly [Yfeko]. We are working hard on that and it's a positive thing.”
