Rangers FC take on Celtic in the Scottish Cup on Sunday and full-back Borna Barisic will be available to play in this key game.
Barisic limped off in injury time against Braga on Thursday and there were fears that he might have picked up an injury. The 29-year-old though has revealed that he was only suffering from cramps and will be fit to face Celtic this weekend.
“It is not an injury, just cramp,” he said, as quoted. “I felt that 10 or 15 minutes before the 90. I tried to play to the end, but I couldn’t any more. It is probably because I haven’t played for a long time.
“It would be much better if we had played 90 minutes, but it is what it is. If it takes 120 minutes then so be it. The most important thing is we won the game.
“From tomorrow, we will start to think about Sunday. As I said, it would have been better if we had played 90. But we are professionals, we are ready, we are ready for the game on Sunday.
“These games give us confidence. We had extra time and showed our team spirit, we showed that we are capable. We are playing in the semi-finals of the Europa League, a big achievement for players, for fans, for us personally. So this game will give us a lot of confidence for sure.
Borna Barisic
He hasn’t been on form, been struggling with an injury, played through the pain barrier again today
As Gary Mac said, all emotion from Borna today at FT, he loves this club. Remember he came back before & proved it then, a brilliant assist today
Top player 🇭🇷 pic.twitter.com/k6usoAqfBb
— Four Lads Had a Dream (@4ladshadadream) August 29, 2021
“We are absolutely happy, delighted. This is what we wanted before the game. We knew that Braga is a good team, but we knew we could beat them and get to the semi-final and we did that.”
Will Borna Barisic start for Rangers in the Scottish Cup semi-final?
The Croatian has been in great nick this season and against Braga, he had a rating of 7.3 out of 10. If he has fully recovered then he will definitely start on Sunday but the last thing the Rangers boss wants is to use someone who is not 100%.
The manager can use Bassey on the left-hand side of defence in which case Balogun will partner Goldson at centre-back.
Borna Barisic will not be risked on Sunday if he hasn’t got time to recover from his cramps and since Rangers played on Thursday night, chances are the Croatian international will start on the bench. Calvin Bassey played as the left-back in the Old Firm Derby at the start of this month so Giovanni van Bronckhorst will have no inhibitions in using him in place of Barisic.
