Rangers head coach Russell Martin says Hamza Igamane declined to come on as a substitute in the 1-1 Scottish Premiership draw against St Mirren.
Igamane trained in the build-up to Sunday’s game and completed the warm-up in Paisley, days after Rangers rejected a bid for him. But when Martin turned to the Morocco international as Rangers chased an equaliser, the 21-year-old said he was injured.
“I turned around to him at 60 minutes and Hamza told me he’s injured,” Martin told Sky Sports. “I have to trust him, but we’ll see.”
Martin added: “I don’t know [if he refused to play.] I have to trust him but we’ll see. The issue is that the transfer window is still open. There are a lot of people, one eye out the door and one in and we need people to be all in all the time in this football club.”
Rangers eventually brought on 18-year-old Findlay Curtis, who scored to rescue a point. The draw leaves Rangers without a win in their first three league matches of a season for the first time since 1989.
Martin admitted the transfer window is unsettling the squad.
“We had a bid this week for Hamza, we rejected it. All was fine. Trained fine yesterday [Saturday], warmed up fine,” he said. “There are too many people uncertain and we have to make sure we have people that want to be here. I’m calm about it.”
He added: “We really need that. At the minute there’s still too many people uncertain or still trying to think, ‘maybe there’s something there for me’. The window needs to shut quickly.”
Former Rangers striker Kris Boyd questioned Igamane’s explanation.
“Listen, if he’s injured, he’s injured. I highly doubt it,” Boyd told Sky Sports. “If that is the case, if I’m Rangers Football Club I’d drive him to the airport and say goodbye. If you’ve not got people who are willing to knuckle down and help this team at this moment of time, then see you later.”
Boyd added: “He needs to get the right type of characters in this dressing room and quick.”
