Youssef Chermiti Injury Threatens Rangers Season

Youssef Chermiti’s season has been thrown into jeopardy by a serious knee injury suffered just hours after Rangers rejected a major bid for the striker.

The 22-year-old Portuguese forward damaged his anterior cruciate ligament in Sunday’s 2-1 home defeat to Hibernian, crashing into the advertising boards behind Raphael Sallinger’s goal after a heavy challenge. He immediately signalled for help, clutching his knee, and the sense inside Ibrox was instant and grim: this was no knock he could run off.

Rangers later confirmed on social media that Chermiti “will be out of action for a significant period of time” – the kind of phrase that usually points to months, not weeks, on the sidelines.

From record buy to cruel blow

Chermiti arrived from Everton in September 2025, reportedly becoming Rangers’ most expensive signing since Tore Andre Flo’s landmark move in 2000. The club paid for potential and had started to see a return: 43 appearances, 30 starts, 15 goals, and the look of a centre forward growing into the jersey.

Capped at under-21 level by Portugal, he had quickly become central to Derek McInnes’ plans. Twice in the last two matches, McInnes had turned to him from the start. Twice, Chermiti had been asked to carry the attacking burden of a side still trying to find its rhythm.

Now that plan lies in ruins.

From the main stand, the incident looked bad the moment he hit the boards. He crumpled, rolled, then froze. Arm in the air. Players waving medics on. A hush, then a murmur, then the uneasy acceptance that Rangers were not just losing their striker for the afternoon.

They might be losing him for the season.

The £22m question

The timing could hardly be more brutal. On the very day Rangers turned down what was reported to be a £22m offer for Chermiti – understood to have come from Turkish champions Galatasaray – their asset, their spearhead, and their project centre forward suffered a potentially season-wrecking injury.

At Monday’s shareholders’ meeting, chairman Andrew Cavenagh was asked directly whether Chermiti should have been risked with such money on the table.

“Just because someone lobs an unsolicited offer in on one sheet of paper, you don't yank a player from a really important match,” the American replied.

Rangers had a choice: bank a significant fee and leave him out against Hibs, or back their valuation, reject the offer and play him. They chose the latter. The kind of decision boards live and die by. The kind that looks very different 24 hours later.

Before kick-off on Sunday, McInnes had been quizzed about Galatasaray’s interest and made the club’s stance clear.

“I'm led to believe the club's valuation of the player hasn't been met,” he told BBC Scotland. “It's no surprise that he's a player who's got a big (price) tag on him and he's got high potential, but thankfully he's our player and that will continue to be the case.

“We’re trying to build a team here at the minute and we're trying to still bring additions to the team that helps us add to the good players that we've got, including Youssef. So it's not something we would encourage at any point.”

Hours later, that defiance collided with reality in the most unforgiving way.

McInnes’ early reign tested

McInnes’ Ibrox tenure is only just under way, but already he is battling the kind of storm managers dread. A key striker out long term. A rejected mega-offer now frozen in time. A support demanding goals and progress while the squad still feels incomplete.

The manager must now find a way to qualify for the Europa League without the man he had pinned much of his attacking structure on. Jagiellonia Bialystok of Poland await, and Rangers suddenly look light up front.

Lawrence Shankland has yet to get his Rangers career going. The goals that flowed elsewhere have not yet followed him through the Ibrox gates. Ryan Naderi, meanwhile, has not convinced as the solution to the team’s scoring problems. Bojan Miovski remains on the books but is still waiting for his first competitive minute under McInnes.

The safety net that was Chermiti has been ripped away.

Recruitment urgency

Cavenagh has tried to steady nerves, insisting that “three to five” new faces will still arrive. Those words, routine enough in a shareholders’ meeting, now carry a very different weight.

McInnes may not just want a new striker. He may need one.

Rangers’ decision-makers had been trying to strike a balance between building a squad around a young, high-ceiling forward and cashing in at the right moment. The injury has tipped that balance for them. The market will not wait. The fixtures will not ease. The expectations certainly will not drop.

Chermiti’s raised arm behind Sallinger’s goal was a cry for help in the moment. For Rangers, it may yet prove the defining image of a season that has barely begun.