Sevco will be without Daniel Candeias for their Europa League debut against Progres Niederkorn on Thursday night.
According to a report in the Daily Record the 29-year-old’s registration is still held by Turkish side Alanyaspor with his transfer not completed to the Ibrox club.
The report claims that international clearance will be granted on July 1 but it does seem unusual that a transfer between Benfica and Sevco is being held up by a loan deal to Turkey even though Candeias has never played a game for the Lisbon club. His last match for Alanyaspor was on June 3 in a 1-0 defeat from Rizespor.
The red tape issue means that Pedro Caixinha is likely to be without four of his eight stars for the tie against the side from Luxembourg.
Bruno Alves remains on international duty at the Confederations Cup while Carlos Pena and Eduardo Herrera have had less than one week of training.
With just four players added Caixinha will have to rely heavily on last season’s squad assembled by Mark Warburton.
It appears that Harry Forrester, Micky O’Halloran, Andy Halliday, Barrie McKay and Rob Kiernan have been told that their service is no longer required which further restricts the options open to the fifth best coach in Qatar.
Responding to the news about Candeias, Pedro Caixinha told the Daily Record: “Daniel is the only registration we could not get because the transfer window is different.
“In these situations UEFA should have a type of exception because the timings are different in different countries.
“Daniel was in Turkey and he won’t receive his clearance in the system until July 1 so we could not make him available for the first qualifying round. We hope to have him available for the second qualifier.”