Philippe Clement in honest Abdallah Sima return verdict as he admits to having regular contact with Brighton ace

Philippe Clement has admitted he won’t give up hope of bringing Abdallah Sima back to Rangers - but a transfer swoop is unlikely to happen unless Brighton reduce their £7million asking price.

The Light Blues boss has confirmed he remains in constant contact with the Senegalese international who is “like a son” to him after his impressive season-long loan spell at Ibrox last term. The 23-year-old attacker was deployed mostly in the wide areas and bagged 16 goals across all competitions - a tally that would undoubtedly have been higher had he managed to avoid a couple of injury woes which included a three month lay-off during the second half of the campaign..

Both Clement and Sima are keen to rekindle their partnership ahead of the new season, but that could prove difficult given the wages he is currently on at the Amex Stadium and the lofty transfer fee the Premier League outfit are demanding, despite having only a year left on his contract.

Issuing an update on Rangers pursuit of the player, Clement said: “I’ve been in touch with him, of course. He’s like one of my sons. Abda loves the club. Abda loves the way of playing we had last season and his role in that. He loved his team-mates and the staff. But at the end of the day, Brighton is the owner so it’s all about the money then. At the moment it’s not possible. But we will see along the way if there comes a possibility because we would love to get him back.”

Clement admits he’s relishing the prospect of having South American duo Danilo and Oscar Cortes back fit and available after lengthy spells on the sidelines last term. Colombian winger Cortes was given a 30-minute run out against Standard Liege last week, while Brazilian striker Danilo made his comeback after a seven month lay-off during Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Ajax during their camp in the Netherlands.

“For sure I’m excited to have them back,” Clement stated. “In some parts of the season it was up and down with availability. At one point we lost Abda and Oscar at the same moment, which was a big blow to how we played. Losing Dani was the same. He was out for so long. Now it’s about bringing them back in a good way. It can’t be that they are so eager to play that you end up killing them now.

“It takes a lot of discussions with the medical staff, the performance team on what to do with them, how to train with them, what exercises they can do, how much of the games they can play and then build up the story. But it takes a while. You can’t just give them a drink and bang, tomorrow they are back fit. It doesn’t work that way. Those are the things that fans don’t have an idea about. I understand. But we have some work to do but that’s the nice thing, otherwise it would be boring.”

Clement criticised the Gers’ medical department last season as the club’s never-ending injury troubles continued to rear its head, leaving the Belgian boss short of options in certain positions at various stages in the campaign. However, he’s confident there will be no repeat of those issues this term.

He admitted: “We had to raise the levels there and to do things better. It is not only one thing that because of that we had a lot of injuries. There were several things. It is not about pointing to one person or two persons or whatever. It is about a lot of things, about raising levels and quality to get a better total in that way and to get better players. I’m very confident the changes will make that better.”