Self inflicted- McInnes reveals why Shankland won’t play again this year

Derek McInnes’ Tuesday media conference was dominated by news on Lawrence Shankland.

The Ibrox striker lasted nine minutes of Saturday’s 1-0 win over Motherwell, afterwards his manager admitted that it looked like a significant injury had been suffered.

Three minutes into the match an issue with VAR communications forced Duncan Nicolson to stop the match.

A further three minute stoppage followed, when play resumed almost instantly Shankland suffered a similar injury to the one he had in January.

On the back of three goals in two games it seemed as if the roof had fallen in at Ibrox with their skipper at least missing out on two matches against Celtic. Plus at emotional return to Tynecastle next month.

Ryan Naderi replaced Shankland against Motherwell and scored the only goal of the game. Later on £9m signing Kevin Kelsy came on for a 20 minute appearance.

Despite recording three wins on the bounce there was a cloud over Ibrox on Saturday as the ‘significant length of time’ became widely known.

At 6pm on Monday selected messengers delivered the message that it was looking like a 12-14 week absence.

Straight away at yesterday’s media conference the first issue was the stricken striker:

SHANKLAND FACES MONTHS OUT OF ACTION

I could see from the way he walked off at the weekend that he knew it was something significant. It happened right when the VAR communications had broken down and there was all that standing about.

I think it was about two and a half minutes of standing around and then it was his very first sprint after that when he did it. It’s just one of those things you have to deal with when it comes to injuries.

Others might have dealt with it through some stretching exercises during the three minute stoppage.

At the age of 31 after being out for nine weeks earlier this year Shankland should have been well aware of the risks to his hamstring.

Later McInnes added:

The two times Lawrence has done it, he hasn’t really been at full pelt. It could have been more of a fatigue thing. I remember when he did it at Hearts it was extra time after we’d played with 10 men on the Sunday, with 10 men against St Mirren on the Wednesday and then gone into extra time.

This time he’s played at Pittodrie at the weekend and then on Falkirk’s 4G surface. All these little things can maybe exacerbate the issue. It’s something we need to look at medically and we will. Depending on what action is taken, there might be something we modify and keep an eye on, but there’s nothing to suggest it’s going to be a problem going forward with his career.

We’re in very good hands medically, we’ve got good staff and support staff, and Lawrence is a top-class professional. He’ll do everything he needs to do.

A decision will have to be made over whether Shankland undergoes surgery on his hamstring tear.

An operation will extend his absence by around four weeks but reduce the possibility of a recurrence.

Clearly some sort of warm up during the VAR related break would have prevented the injury, basic stretching would almost certainly have prevented the injury.

Dan Neill is now expected to be captain for the double header against Celtic.