Russell Martin drops huge Rangers bombshell as he confirms wantaway star 'refused' to come on in St Mirren draw
The Ibrox boss confirmed a few of his players are not committed to the cause and have one eye on potential transfers
Russell Martin has revealed that Rangers striker Hamza Igamane refused to come on during his side’s 1-1 draw against St Mirren in Paisley.
The Ibrox boss confessed in his post-match interview that the Moroccan international told him he was injured when he looked to bring him off the bench in the second half, despite having trained and warmed up before kick-off.
Martin also confirmed the club had rejected a bid for the forward this week, amid reported interested from French duo Lille, Rennes and Dutch giants Feyenoord.
Rangers turn down bid from unknown club for Igamane
Speaking to BBC Scotland immediately after the game, Martin said: “We had a bid this week for Hamza. I turned around to him at 60 minutes and Hamza told me he's injured.
“I have to trust him, but we'll see. The issue is that the window is still open and there are people with one eye out and one eye in. There are too many people uncertain and we have to make sure we have people that want to be here. I'm calm about it.”
Asked for more clarity on Igamane’s situation as he addressed the media shortly after, the Englishman repeated: “I wanted to bring him on and he said he had a sore quad, so he didn’t come on.”
Quizzed on whether he was aware of the injury, Martin responded: “He wouldn’t be on the bench if he wasn’t fit. He said he done it in the warm-up.
“We turned down a bid, but we’ll assess his injury. As a human being, I have to trust Hamza like he says, so we’ll see what happens.”
With just eight days of the summer transfer window remaining, Martin hinted there are other players in his squad who are looking for more game time elsewhere.
He added: “I think it happens in football, but I’ll go back to Cyriel (Dessers) again. He’s worked really hard to get fit, he hasn’t quite been fit but will probably be fit for Wednesday.
“Whilst he’s made it really clear what his intention would be and his desire would be, there’s been no problem. He trains properly, performs for the team and has been great, but everyone human being is different.
“Cyriel’s quite experienced and some of the guys are really young, so I’m sure the situation will be cleared up in the next ten days. I’m quite calm about it.”
Asked to clarify if Dessers is one of those players who has expressed a desire to leave the club, Martin replied: “No, Cyriel’s not asked to leave once. But we’ve had a lot of discussions about it, so we’ll see what happens.
“I think there’s a couple of guys not in the squad today and a couple who haven’t played as much as they’d want to. It’s always difficult. We’ll have to wait and see. I’m very happy with the guys we’ve got, but in ten days we need to be even happier with what we have in the building.
“And the guys who are really not all-in probably need to play there football elsewhere.”