{"id":20758,"date":"2025-08-24T19:12:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T19:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/20758\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T19:12:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T19:12:08","slug":"russell-martin-says-rangers-player-refused-to-play-during-draw-at-st-mirren","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/20758\/","title":{"rendered":"Russell Martin says Rangers player refused to play during draw at St Mirren"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">The Light Blues began the Scottish Premiership match in Paisley without a recognised centre-forward &#8211; midfielder Thelo Aasgaard was asked to lead the line &#8211; but as the visitors trailed in the second-half to a Jonah Ayunga goal after 33 minutes, the Gers boss turned to his dugout.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">However, the 22-year-old Morocco striker, who was subject to a bid from an unspecified club last week, indicated a quad problem picked up in the warm-up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Brazilian striker Danilo did come on as one of five changes but it was teenage substitute Findlay Curtis who scored the equaliser which left the Light Blues with three successive league draws since the start of the season, as they prepare for the second leg of their Champions League play-off against Club Brugge in Belgium on Wednesday night, where they look to claw back a 3-1 deficit.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-media-max-width=\"560\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">\ud83e\udd15 &#8220;Hamza told me he&#8217;s injured&#8230;&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Russell Martin says Igamane REFUSED to come on as a substitute after Rangers rejected a bid for the player \u2935\ufe0f <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/QYbxtspMgP\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/QYbxtspMgP<\/a><\/p>\n<p> \u2014 Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ScotlandSky\/status\/1959612245266116770?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">August 24, 2025<\/a>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Asked about Igamane, who joined from AS FAR in 2024 and who has made just three substitute appearances this season, Martin said: \u201cI wanted to bring him on around 60 minutes, and he said he has a sore quad so he can\u2019t come on.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">\u201cHe wouldn\u2019t be on the bench if he&#8217;s not fit. So he said he\u2019d done it warming up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">\u201cWe turned down a bid this week, but we\u2019ll assess his injury and I have to trust Hamza so we\u2019ll see what happens.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">\u201cAs a human being I have to trust that he has done it in the warm up like he said and we\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Asked if Igamane came into Martin\u2019s category of players with one eye on the exit door, the former Southampton boss said: \u201cI think when you\u2019ve had a bid turned down in the week and then this happens, maybe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Martin then brought up injured 30-year-old Nigeria forward Cyriel Dessers, who was also subject of a bid earlier in the transfer window.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">The Ibrox boss said: \u201cI think it happens in football, but I\u2019ll go back to Cyriel (Dessers) again.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">\u201cHe\u2019s worked really hard to get fit, hasn&#8217;t quite been fit, he&#8217;ll probably be fit for Wednesday. So whilst he\u2019s made it really clear what his intention would be or what his desire would be, there\u2019s been no problem, none.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">\u201cHe trains properly, performs with the team, been great, but everyone&#8217;s different.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">\u201cEvery human being is different. He (Dessers) is quite experienced. Some of the guys are really young so the situation will be cleared up in the next 10 days (end of transfer window).<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">\u201cI\u2019m quite calm about it. We\u2019ll assess Hamza. Hopefully, it\u2019s not too bad and we\u2019ll see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">When asked if he meant Dessers had asked to leave Rangers, Martin said: \u201cNo, Cyriel\u2019s not asked to leave. He\u2019s not asked to leave once.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">\u201cBut we\u2019ve had a lot of discussions about it so we&#8217;ll see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">It was another \u201cfrustrating\u201d afternoon for Martin who said: \u201cThe second half was more like it should look but we conceded a really poor goal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">\u201cWe have to have the courage to play football all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">St Mirren\u2019s Stephen Robinson was proud of his players\u2019 efforts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">He said: \u201cI thought we were outstanding in the first half again, created numerous chances and just a little bit of decision making, lacking that quality in certain decisions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">\u201cCredit to Rangers, they come out second half, made changes. Spooked us maybe a little bit for 20, 25 minutes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">\u201cSo that\u2019s something we need to improve on, but overall, we\u2019re happy with the point, we believe it could have been more, but they may feel the exact same.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Light Blues began the Scottish Premiership match in Paisley without a recognised centre-forward &#8211; midfielder Thelo Aasgaard&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20759,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[18,19,17,9959,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-20758","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-rangers-fc","12":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}