Kemar Roofe: Rangers striker’s season ended after undergoing hip surgery | Football News

Rangers striker Kemar Roofe will miss the rest of the season after undergoing surgery on his hip.

The striker joins winger Tom Lawrence on the sidelines but John Souttar and Ridvan Yilmaz are back in contention for Sunday’s visit of Raith Rovers in the Scottish Cup.

Roofe has been plagued by injury this season and has made just six appearances in all competitions.

He scored against Livingston in his last game on February 18, but will now target a return to action at the start of next season.

Lawrence’s season was confirmed to be over last week, with the winger also undergoing surgery.

“Kemar Roofe has had a minor hip operation and will also be back for pre-season,” manager Michael Beale said.

“Tom Lawrence has had a minor operation and will be back at pre-season.

“The decision was taken that, with a short amount of league games left, it is better to get these boys ready for the new campaign and they will be important players for us, come pre-season, for sure.

“We have one or two bumps but nothing major heading into the weekend. Ridvan [Yilmaz], [John] Souttar and [Leon] King are all available for selection.”

‘I’ll pick my strongest team’

Beale will play his strongest Rangers side against Championship outfit Raith Rovers in Sunday’s Scottish Cup quarter-final tie as he bids to keep the trophy in Govan.

After beating Kilmarnock 3-1 at home in the cinch Premiership last Saturday, the Gers boss kept the same starting line-up for the trip to Hibernian on Wednesday night and arguably the best performance since the former QPR boss took over from Giovanni van Bronckhorst last November was rewarded with a comprehensive 4-1 win.

Beale wants to keep the momentum going at Ibrox against the Kirkcaldy outfit as he pushes for Rangers – nine points behind Viaplay Cup winners Celtic at the top of the table – to finish the season on a high.

“It will be the strongest team. It is a quarter-final, it is important,” he said.

“The team set a standard in the last couple of games. As long as there are no issues, it will be close to those two teams who started and the other boys will have to fight in training to earn their minutes and if the game allows, we will give people minutes but this is a quarter-final so we are giving it the respect it deserves.

“We won the trophy last year so there has been an extra focus probably since pre-season.

“It is something that we want to retain. It is the last game of the season as well.

“We want to get to Hampden, firstly for a semi-final and then push on to the final and ultimately our aim is to win the competition.”

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