Rangers left-back Tuur Rommens came off the bench after 11 weeks on the sidelines in the eye of storm Boelo at Ibrox as his side got back to winning ways with a 4-0 scoreline against St Johnstone yesterday.
Rommens got 20 minutes off the bench yesterday with his team already 3-0 up as Rangers boss Derek McInnes looked to get minutes into the legs of players like Rommens, Ben Godfrey and Tochi Chukwuani who have all seen limited playing time so far this season.
In a post-match press conference Rommens was asked how it felt to come back from injury and get some time back on the pitch.
He replied: “Yeah, it feels good especially after such a long injury, it’s nice to be back on the pitch and get a win so it feels nice.”
Rommens was next asked about how frustrating it was to be out for such a long period of time and missing so many big games.
He said: “It’s always the big games you miss. Like all the games you want to play more and football is what it is regarding injuries, I’ve had a couple now and I’m lucky with that and I was desperate to come back and be better than before.”
Next he was asked about James Penrice who has occupied the left back role that Rommens vacated when he picked up his injury in the game against Hibs back in August.
Rommens answered: “He did well, the whole team did well and I think it’s good to have competition in a team like Rangers because to win championships you need more than 11 players and I think he has done well.”
Following that he was asked about his injury, what he felt when his injury occurred and what he went through to get back fit.
He said: “I had it against Hibs, my last action, I felt something in my groin and it was big, bigger than I expected. I was back the first week of the international break in September then I had three weeks to get my fitness back and I feel ready to play games again.”
Rommens was next asked about how difficult it is to work behind the scenes knowing how hard the task is to get back into the starting 11.
He replied: “You see them play every week and it’s hard to not get involved and to not help the team so yeah it was hard”
Rommens was then asked about how much he has enjoyed working with Derek McInnes so far this season after he became Rangers manager in the summer.
He said: “He gives us a lot of tools to work with and he gives you confidence to do your stuff on the pitch but with guidelines. I think you can see it on the pitch now. The first couple of games was difficult but now everybody is getting better and better and doing what is expected of them, I think it can only get better.”
Later he was asked if he felt the amount of change over the summer at Ibrox meant it was inevitable there was going to be a slow start as everyone got up to speed with how McInnes wanted them to play.
Rommens replied: “Yes of course, if a lot of players leave and a lot of players come in it’s not easy for new players but after a couple of games you get used to it.”
Lastly he was asked about the mentality of the squad after the collapse at the end of last season if he can see a change in the mentality.
He said: “Yeah I think so, we need to make it through to the end of the season to see if there really has been a change but we need to just keep going and not speak about last season so we just need to keep going and do our best.”
Rommens will be looking to get more time midweek as Rangers travel to Tynecastle on Wednesday 28th October to take on Hearts in a clash of 2nd against 3rd in the Scottish Premiership table.
