WHEN you are a club manager, you send your players away on international duty and you cross your fingers hoping they will come back fit, healthy and ready to play.

Unfortunately for Steven Gerrard, that isn’t the case with Ryan Jack and Rangers are owed an explanation from the Scottish FA as to why his knee injury flared up during a training session.

Rangers would have made it known that Ryan had a problem that they were managing and had every right to expect that Steve Clarke and his staff would do likewise.

If you pick up a knock in a tackle or you pull a muscle during a sprint, there is very little you can do about that. Players get injured in training and in matches all the time.

But this situation is different because it was so easily avoidable and Steven is clearly upset at the intensity of the work Ryan was asked to do with Scotland just 48 hours after the Old Firm game.

This was a player that was injured in training and was injured because he did something that he shouldn’t have been doing at that time.

I can understand why the manager is angry because it has disrupted his preparations for a crucial Premiership game with Livingston this afternoon.

When you hand your players over to their country, it is down to them to make sure they are taken care of properly. To put Ryan through that session is not fair on the player and it is not fair on the club.

In this day in age, with all the information and data coaches can get at their fingertips and the advancements in Sports Science, every player is monitored closely and sessions can be tailored to their own individual requirements.

So there really is no excuse for Ryan being overworked last week. If Rangers are looking after his knee, then Scotland should as well.

After sitting out the defeat to Russia, Ryan was sent back to Rangers before the game with Belgium and Steven couldn’t believe that he had returned in a worse state than when he left.

Ryan got the call-up because of his form for Rangers and how impressive he has been for a long time now and his absence is a really big blow for Steven Gerrard.

Rangers need all of their best players if they are to challenge for the Premiership and make progress in Europe and there is no doubt that Ryan plays more often than not when he is fit and ready to go.

Steven said on Thursday that he hadn’t spoken to Steve Clarke about it but the Scotland setup are answerable here and I am sure Rangers won’t let this matter rest.

I do have a bit of sympathy for the player here and we can only hope that the problem is solved sooner rather than later.

He has upset the Rangers manager here and that is certainly worse than upsetting the Scotland manager.

Ryan turned up to represent his country because he wanted to play and he wanted to help so he will be bitterly disappointed at what has happened during the break.

It would have been easy for him to say ‘I have got this knock, I can’t report for duty’. A lot of players don’t turn up, but he did.

He has joined up with the squad in good form and he should have been in with a very good shout of playing against Russia and Belgium.

It will be a huge disappointment for him that he wasn’t able to do that and so frustrating that he now faces missing out for Rangers as a result.

Steven Gerrard wants his players to experience playing international football but that can’t come at a cost.