Beale denies new injury set-back for John Souttar

John Souttar has suffered another set-back/delay as he attempts to make his second appearance of the season.

The defender left Hearts as a free agent in the summer, walking into a lucrative four year contract that had been agreed in January.

Connor Goldson was tipped to leave Ibrox in the summer but with no interest in the defender from England he signed a new Ibrox deal which pushed Souttar down the queue for a place.

Souttar and Goldson were paired together for the first match of the season at Livingston but after an hour of rag-dolling the former Hearts man was substituted and has yet to reappear.

At the start of January Beale had Souttar pencilled in for an appearance against St Johnstone on January 28 but has now binned that timeline.

First two minutes

John Souttar is still training in isolation. Similar to Tom (Lawrence). Their situations are dragging out a little bit but they are working hard and doing individual work at the moment.

John needs a bit more in the tank I fink in terms of is general fitness, in terms of before if I was to frow im out into a game. It is allwite training with us, doing little bits and stuff like that and obviously we ave just got to make sure that people react well to the, they are almost going through a pre-season again, so there will be ups and downs in that but nuffingk to concern me.

Lawrence hasn’t played since August, Filip Helander wasn’t mentioned at today’s conference and has yet to play a game this season.