Glasgow Rangers may have to go through the remainder of the season without the services of Abdallah Sima, as the winger suffered an injury during the recent Scottish Cup semifinal against Hearts.

Having stuttered their way to a 2-1 win over St Mirren on the weekend, Phillipe Clement will be praying that the winger miraculously recovers as the Ibrox side struggled without his presence in the final third.

Abdallah Sima may have played his final game for Rangers

Having just returned from a hamstring injury which kept him out for a few months after he sustained it on duty with Senegal during the Africa Cup of Nations in January, Sima made an immediate impact in only his second game back against Celtic.

The on-loan winger was brought on for the second half before netting the second goal with just five minutes left, as Rangers scraped a 3-3 draw at Ibrox.

Against Hearts, however, he pulled up within 15 minutes and was subbed by Clement, who discussed his condition after the game, saying:

“We’re going to see and make an assessment tomorrow. He felt some tightness in his hamstring, I hope it’s not so bad. We hope we can have Abdallah in the next couple of weeks because he’s been really important in that period where he was fit and he was coming back now. So we will see.”

With just five games left – four Premiership fixtures plus the Scottish Cup final – might the Ibrox faithful have seen the last of Sima?

Abdallah Sima’s stats for Rangers this season

Since arriving on loan last summer from Brighton and Hove Albion, Sima has been one of the club’s better performers in front of goal.

In 38 games, the 22-year-old has scored 16 goals while notching two assists, made even more impressive by the fact he missed a large chunk of the season due to his hamstring injury.

There is no doubt Clement will miss the player once he returns to Brighton this summer. Unless he can stump up the cash to sign him permanently, the Belgian will have to find a replacement who can fill the void left by the Senegal international.

The left-winger currently earns £8.5k-per-week during his loan spell, which is among one of the lowest wages in the squad, behind colleagues such as Kemar Roofe, Danilo and Rabbi Matondo, who haven’t contributed near as much as Sima has this term.

The Light Blues have a history of signing expensive flops on high wages, often failing to live up to the lofty expectations placed on them when they arrive in Glasgow.

One of the most notable recent examples is that of Cedric Itten, who arrived to plenty of excitement, only to stutter his way through two seasons at Ibrox.

How much Rangers paid for Cedric Itten

Ahead of the 2020/21 campaign, Steven Gerrard was desperate to bolster an attack that had stagnated in the months prior to the previous season being halted due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Before Christmas, the Gers were in the mix for the league title, yet a run of just four wins out of nine following the winter break ensured the club slipped out of contention.

That summer, Roofe was brought in from Anderlecht along with Itten, who Gerrard signed from Swiss side FC St Gallen for a transfer fee believed to be around £3m, which indicated that he was of high quality.

It soon became apparent that Gerrard had overpaid massively for the Swiss striker.

Cedric Itten’s Rangers statistics

Having scored 36 goals in just 63 games for St Gallen, it looked like Rangers had signed a player who certainly knew where the back of the net was.

His first season at the Light Blues was hardly a success, despite them ending a ten-year wait for a league title. Across 37 games, Itten managed to score just six goals, while grabbing a further three assists, hardly £3m worth of impact, let’s put it that way.