Erling Haaland ruled OUT of Europa League clash with Rangers as Borussia Dortmund fly to Glasgow without star striker

Erling Haaland has been ruled OUT of Thursday night’s Europa League tie with Rangers after Borussia Dortmund jetted into Glasgow without their star striker.

The 21-year-old, one of the best attackers in world football, sat out of last week’s first leg at the Signal Iduna Park as Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side cinched a stunning 4-2 victory.

Haaland, who has not featured for Marco Rose’s side in over a month since suffering a a muscle strain against Hoffenheim, had been rated a doubt for tomorrow’s clash at Ibrox.

That news has now been confirmed by Sebastian Webling of German media outlet FunkeSports, who tweeted this morning: “Bad news for Dortmund: The #BVB travels to Glasgow without Erling Haaland. #RFCBVB.”

It is a major blow for Dortmund in their quest to overturn a two-goal deficit against the Light Blues but midfielder Axel Witsel believes his team-mates can cope without Haaland.

The Belgian started last Thursday’s heavy defeat before being subbed off at half-time but he has rubbished talk that the tie is already over.

Speaking to the Daily Record, he said: “We have not put ourselves in an easy position for the game in Glasgow - but we can’t believe the tie is over.

“The tie is not over, we will not accept that. We have the quality to go and produce a big result.

“It doesn’t matter that we have injuries, our squad is big enough and has enough quality to cope.”

The Bundesliga heavyweights bounced back to winning ways in emphatic style at the weekend as they recorded a 6-0 win over Borussia Monchengladbach.

It acted as a timely reminder to Rangers of the quality they possess and England international Jude Bellingham, who scored in the 4-2 loss has fired a warning shot to the Scottish champions.

He stated: “We will go and attack them and try to put the ball in the net as many times as possible.

“Sunday’s result also gives us a lot of confidence, knowing we can score goals. We were really clinical and we will be right up for it on Thursday.”