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I’m not surprised that Rangers are keeping Steven Davis around, says Michael O’Neill
During the week the Ibrox club announced that ‘Scott Arfield, Filip Helander, Ryan Kent, Allan McGregor and Alfredo Morelos would all leave the club upon the expiry of their contracts this summer’.
At the same time in a statement Rangers revealed: “Steven Davis, whose contract is also expiring, remains in discussions to continue working with the club’s medical team to support his return to full fitness following a long-term ACL injury suffered in December 2022.”
Gers boss Michael Beale is a big admirer of 38-year-old Davis and has talked in the past about his importance to the team on and off the pitch.
Asked about the Rangers announcement regarding Davis, Northern Ireland boss O’Neill said: “I didn’t expect anything different if I’m honest. Rangers is a club that will look after their players.
“I think Steven is in a good place now. He had a little bit of trouble earlier on with the injury in terms of maybe the bend in his knee which was a little bit challenging but he is beyond that now.
“The good thing for Steven is he’s 38 but he has a 32-year-old body. Provided he doesn’t hit other little setbacks along the way then hopefully his progress will increase and he’ll get back.”
O’Neill won’t have Davis available for the Euro 2024 qualifiers in June or September. It is the same situation with Sunderland skipper Corry Evans while there is no return date yet for Leeds hero Stuart Dallas.
Others out of action for next month’s matches versus Denmark and Kazakhstan are Liam Boyce, Josh Magennis, Conor Washington and Shane Ferguson.
“Corry Evans has an ACL which is a minimum nine months, Davo ACL minimum nine months. I think it will be a push for both of those players to be back for September,” said O’Neill.
“Stuart has been out for over 12 months now so I’m not going to put a timeframe on when he will be back. It is a very serious injury that he had and we just have to try and support him and hope that he makes good progress over the summer. He’s had a few setbacks along the way which is unfortunate.
“Liam Boyce is at the end of his ACL so Liam should be fit for the start of the season and be ready for September.
“The other injuries are smaller injuries. I think for Josh Magennis it is three months, so he might be touch and go for the start of the season, Conor Washington has had his knee cleaned up and done. He was optimistic that he would be fit for the June games but unfortunately that’s not the case and Shane Ferguson has played for most of the season with quite a bad groin situation so he has had groin surgery.”
