Philippe Clement has revealed Cyriel Dessers was temporarily BLINDED during Rangers‘ 4-0 win over FCSB and that the striker apologised for heading straight up the tunnel after being subbed.
The Gers no 9 hit the deck in the build up to their third goal scored by Vaclav Cerny, who claimed a double on the night. He was then taken off, appearing to be in some distress and stormed up the tunnel, not re-appearing to watch replacement Hamza Igamane add a fourth for the hosts – the first time they’ve scored as many in Europe since a 4-2 Europa League win over Dortmund in 2022
And Clement explained that Dessers got a finger in the eye, rendering him unable to see and the decision was made to bring him off. He hadn’t been having a good night until then, and his reaction to being hooked was one of a man not willing to make way yet and his disappearing act was noted by the boss. But Clement admitted that Dessers quickly apologised and the Light Blues manager put it down to emotions running high.
“Yeah, totally,” Clement replied when asked if he was surprised by Dessers’ sudden disappearance. “And he apologised for that because he was so emotional.
“He was hungry to score, hungry to play good for the team, which is what he was doing during the game. He got a knock on his eyes and he lost eyesight so he couldn’t see anything anymore., not enough to play.
“So he was emotional in that moment because he didn’t want to come off. Afterwards he said sorry manager, I should have stayed longer and sat down and give time for the rest. But it was an emotional reaction of a player who is very hungry to play.”
As for the prognosis on Dessers for the weekend game against St Mirren, Clement warned that it’s too soon to say. “I’m not an eye specialist,” he said. “I have a lot of things to do in this club but that’s not one of the things. So we will see in the next couple of days.
“Tom Lawrence also got a bad knock. We need to see in the next couple of days what everybody thinks about that. Leon Balogun cramped so I think it’s a big issue.”