Rangers kept Chermiti, then he tore his ACL

The worst possible timing

According to BBC Sport, Chermiti has suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury and will be sidelined for a significant period — the kind of diagnosis that reframes an entire season before it's properly started. The exact recovery timeline hasn't been confirmed beyond that, but ACL injuries rarely resolve themselves in a matter of weeks.

What makes this particularly sharp is the sequence of events. Rangers had just knocked back a transfer bid for the striker — the identity of the interested club hasn't been disclosed — before the injury struck. The club made a deliberate call to hold onto him. That call now looks costly in the most unfortunate way possible.

What Rangers are left with

The bigger question now sits with Philippe Clement and his staff: who carries the attacking load while Chermiti is out? Rangers' options up front will be under immediate scrutiny, and whether the club moves to address the gap before the window closes is the story to watch over the coming days.

The rejected bid adds a layer of complexity that goes beyond bad luck. Had Rangers accepted the offer, they'd have banked a fee and known they needed a replacement. Instead, they're now without their striker and without the transfer funds that could have helped solve the problem. It's the kind of situation that gets discussed in boardrooms for a long time.

Chermiti himself is the one who suffers most here — an ACL at any point in a career is a serious setback, and losing months of football when you're trying to establish yourself at a club is a particularly hard blow. The transfer noise around him suggested there was genuine interest in what he could do. That conversation will have to wait.