Rangers captain Lawrence Shankland faces MONTHS on the sidelines after suffering hamstring injury in win over Motherwell

Rangers manager Derek McInnes fears captain Lawrence Shankland is facing months out of action with a hamstring injury.

The 31-year-old striker pulled up on the halfway line in the early stages of his side’s 1-0 home league win over Motherwell and walked straight up the tunnel when being replaced by eventual matchwinner Ryan Naderi in the eighth minute.

McInnes did hand £9million new boy Kevin Kelsy a late cameo appearance and will no doubt ask more from him moving forward with Youssef Chermiti also out for the season, but his thoughts last night were focused on his skipper’s welfare ahead of a scan.

Shankland missed more than two months of action at the turn of the year when working under McInnes at Hearts – with this latest setback also ruling him out of new Scotland boss Sebastien Pocognoli’s plans for the Nations League double-header with Slovenia and Switzerland later this month.

‘He has a similar feeling to the hamstring injury he had at Hearts last January when he was out for three months,’ said McInnes. ‘Obviously, we don’t want to speculate too much, but he says it feels similar and in the same area.

‘We’ll get him scanned on Monday. His output was really high on Wednesday at Falkirk on the 4G (pitch). Sometimes, going from pitch to pitch, different surfaces, can maybe make you a wee bit more vulnerable.

‘He says he felt fine going into the game and there was nothing really that he did in the game that he was aware of. He just felt it and pulled up. It’s a shame for the boy because he was obviously in good form, getting himself moving and enjoying some of that attacking threat we’ve had over the last few games.

‘We’ve waited long and hard for that, so it is just a pity for Lawrence that it looks as if, in the next period, he’s going to be sitting on the sidelines.

‘If somebody had said to me walking in the door that Chermiti and Shankland were going to be injured with significant injuries, you know, you’d have felt the weight of that.

‘Getting Kevin was such a good bit of business and the club deserve a lot of credit for that. I thought he came on and got to the pitch of the game really well. He’s such a good mover, strong boy.

‘There was obviously a temptation to bring him on after five minutes, but, and much to the crowd’s disappointment, I had a conversation with Kevin yesterday. He said he felt a bit stiff and tight from the previous couple of days training and the fact that he travelled.

‘If it’s not the right decision to start him, it’s probably the right decision not to bring him on after five minutes and put the No 9 position maybe more at risk.

‘I was delighted for Ryan too. The good thing with Ryan is, even when he’s not at his best, he puts himself about. He lets centre-halves know he’s there. He presses brilliantly.

‘He gets his goal, he gets a bit of confidence for that, and he probably could have added to the one goal he got, but it was a strong performance from him. We’re going to need that squad to call upon.

‘Bojan Miovski wasn’t in the squad, but we’ve still got a guy who knows his way about the Scottish Premier League and can score.

‘Having Ryan, Kevin, Bojan and Min-su Kim, who can play central, we’ve still got some decent options there.’

McInnes also reported himself happy with the nature of yesterday’s victory over Motherwell, his side’s third straight league win.

‘I thought the scoreline made it suggest it was tighter than it actually was,’ he said. ‘Motherwell are good enough to create opportunities, but I thought we nullified their threat throughout the game, really, other than maybe one or two moments on transitions.

‘In terms of chances created, penalty-box entries, big chances missed? You know, we’re just disappointed we’ve not added to the one goal, but one was enough today. It might not be in future, so we’ve got to make sure we get those improvements and put teams to bed.’

McInnes also felt vice-captain Dan Neil delivered a display to silence some of his early doubters.

‘I thought Dan was strong. I’m delighted that everybody’s recognising that. I think it’s probably his best performance since he came to the club,’ he reported.

‘What I enjoyed even from my vantage point today was I could hear Dan and Nico (Raskin) speaking, organising, and really driving the press, and I thought we turned the ball over so many times.’

Meanwhile, Motherwell head coach Alfred Johansson chose to praise keeper Alex Paulsen for some of his saves over the 90 minutes despite the fact he was caught in possession at the edge of his own box for the Naderi goal that secured the points.

‘You don’t want to concede goals. It doesn’t matter if it’s this or that,’ he said. ‘The reason why it stays 1-0 today is also because of Alex Paulsen.

‘With how consistent he’s been, how many clean sheets we’ve been having this last season, it’s not even a point.

‘Congratulations to Rangers, I think they were better than us. We didn’t play to our best, especially not on the ball. Then the game becomes too much transitions, and Rangers are good there.

‘I think, in the second half, we tried to go for it a little bit more, but, over the 90 minutes, I think we were not good enough.’