Youssef Chermiti Ruled Out With ACL Injury Hours After Rangers Reject Galatasaray Bid

Youssef Chermiti went down clutching his knee in the first half against Hibernian on Sunday, and the news that followed two days later was as bad as Rangers had feared. The striker has been ruled out for a significant period of time after scans confirmed an ACL injury, a blow that lands only hours after the club turned down a big-money bid for him from Galatasaray.

The 22-year-old collided with the pitchside boards at Ibrox and left the stadium in a boot and knee brace, taken off on a stretcher as Rangers slipped to defeat in manager Derek McInnes’ third game in charge.

A striker Rangers had just turned down big money for

The timing could hardly be crueller. Word of Galatasaray’s offer for Chermiti broke on the same day he was injured, with Rangers rejecting the approach and choosing to hold onto a player they rate more highly than the club-record fee they received when Calvin Bassey left for Ajax in 2023, an initial £19.6m.

Chermiti joined Rangers from Everton last summer in a deal worth up to £10m and repaid that investment quickly, scoring 15 goals and providing five assists across all competitions in his first season at Ibrox. Capped at Under-21 level by Portugal, he had established himself as the club’s most dangerous forward heading into the new campaign, which made the decision to reject Galatasaray’s interest an easy one for the club hierarchy even before the injury changed the outlook entirely.

His path to Ibrox began at Sporting Lisbon, where he came through the academy before Everton paid £11m for him in the summer of 2023. That move to Merseyside never worked out the way either side hoped. Chermiti made 22 Premier League appearances for Everton across two seasons but failed to score in any of them, and the club eventually decided to cash in rather than keep waiting for his form to turn. The goals he found almost immediately at Ibrox stood in sharp contrast to his barren spell in England.

McInnes: ‘Disappointed for the big fella’

Speaking after the defeat to Hibernian, which left McInnes still searching for his first win in charge, the Rangers boss made clear how much the club will miss Chermiti’s presence up front. “Disappointed for the big fella that he has to come off on a stretcher. I thought he was looking bright and running gaps,” McInnes said.

“He played with a bit of purpose and there’s no doubt we missed that, but he’s left in a boot and his knee in a brace.

“It’s no surprise that he’s a player who’s got a big tag on him and he’s got high potential, but thankfully he’s our player and that will continue to be the case.”

That last line reads differently in light of the Galatasaray approach. McInnes was, in effect, confirming that even with his best forward facing a long spell on the sidelines, Rangers have no intention of revisiting a sale that would have left them without Chermiti altogether. Sky Sports News reported that the club are now looking to add another forward before the transfer window shuts, with the Chermiti injury accelerating a search that was already underway following his rejected move.

A squad already patching gaps

Chermiti’s setback is not the only injury McInnes is managing. Left-back Tuur Rommens is also facing weeks out with a groin problem, and Rangers are working through a shortlist of possible replacements as they try to add cover before Sunday’s League Cup tie against holders St Mirren.

Brentford’s Jayden Meghoma has emerged as one option following talks, while former Hearts left-back James Penrice remains on the club’s radar, though his club AEK have so far been reluctant to sanction a loan. Rangers have also held talks with Aston Villa over right-back Kosta Nedeljkovic, and it is understood Club Brugge’s Hugo Siquet is keen on a move to Ibrox, though Brugge are themselves reluctant to let the 24-year-old leave.

One deal that is close to completion is winger Couhaib Driouech’s £6.5m move from PSV, which would become Rangers’ tenth signing of the summer. The 24-year-old is completing his medical and paperwork after Rangers saw off competition from Burnley and Celta Vigo, and arrives with a productive record from the Eredivisie, having scored 12 goals in 61 games for PSV, including three in the Champions League last season, while also providing 10 assists.

Rangers chairman Andrew Cavenagh has confirmed the club will add somewhere in the region of three to five more players before the transfer window closes in Scotland on September 3, with the search for attacking reinforcements now carrying added urgency after the Chermiti diagnosis. Midfielder Mohamed Diomande is expected to be the next player to leave Ibrox, with Turkish club Corum FK set to sign him for around £4.5m.

Driouech would become Rangers’ tenth summer arrival if his move from PSV is completed as expected, underlining how active the club have been in the market even before Chermiti’s injury forced a rethink of their attacking options. Beating Burnley and Celta Vigo to his signature reflects the pull Rangers can still exert on players from clubs competing in European football, and his ability to operate across the front line gives McInnes another attacking option to call on while Chermiti is unavailable.

Diomande’s expected exit to Corum FK, meanwhile, continues a summer in which Rangers have been willing to move players on when the right offer arrives, even while adding elsewhere. The club’s overall business points to a squad being reshaped in several positions at once rather than a single problem area being patched, with the Chermiti injury simply adding a new, unplanned dimension to that process. Cavenagh’s promise of further signings before the deadline suggests the club expects to keep working the market right up until September 3, with a new forward now among the priorities alongside the left-back cover already being sought.

McInnes still finding his feet

McInnes was appointed on a three-year deal in June, arriving from Hearts after Danny Rohl’s departure for RB Salzburg following just eight months in charge at Ibrox. It was not McInnes’ first opportunity to manage Rangers. He turned the job down in 2017 while at Aberdeen, taking it on the second time of asking after guiding Hearts to a runners-up finish in the Scottish Premiership last season.

Three games into his tenure, McInnes is still searching for his first win, and Sunday’s defeat to Hibernian, followed almost immediately by confirmation of Chermiti’s injury, has made for a difficult start. How quickly he can turn results around will depend partly on how well Rangers can cover the gap left by their top scorer, with Driouech’s arrival and further incoming business seen internally as the quickest route to easing that pressure.

What it means for the squad

Losing the club’s most productive forward for months rather than weeks makes an already difficult early spell for McInnes harder still. The club’s business elsewhere in the squad, with Driouech close to arriving and further reinforcements promised, suggests Rangers are treating the Chermiti blow as something to work around rather than a reason to slow down their transfer plans.

For Chermiti himself, the injury interrupts a breakout year that had made him one of the most sought-after young forwards in Scottish football. Rangers’ decision to turn down Galatasaray’s bid, confirmed on the very day he was hurt, leaves little doubt about how highly the club rates him. The challenge now is simply getting him back on the pitch, with the club describing the timeline only as a significant period rather than putting a specific date on his return.

There is a wider lesson in how quickly circumstances changed for Chermiti this week. On Sunday morning he was a player good enough to attract serious interest from a club competing in Turkish football, with Rangers confident enough in his value to knock back the approach without a second thought. By Sunday evening he was on a stretcher, and by Tuesday the club were confirming a diagnosis that will keep him out for a significant period, with no return date given. Football at this level moves fast enough that a single collision with a pitchside board can turn a transfer saga into an injury story within the space of ninety minutes.

What happens next depends heavily on how the recruitment team responds. Cavenagh’s commitment to further signings gives McInnes something concrete to point to, even as he manages a dressing room adjusting to the loss of its top scorer. Rangers fans will be watching the incoming business over the next fortnight as closely as the results on the pitch, aware that how the club replaces Chermiti’s goals in the short term could shape the rest of the season as much as anything McInnes does with his current group of players.