Philippe Clement hits back at Ryan Jack Rangers fitness claim from Steve Clarke

Philippe Clement has hit back at Steve Clarke’s claim Ryan Jack has been fit for weeks now, insisting he’s still not ready to start a match.

The Rangers midfielder was included in Clarke’s provisional Scotland squad for Euro 2024 despite not kicking a ball for the Gers first team since February. He did manage a B team appearance this month and made Clement’s bench for the final game of the season against Hearts, but didn’t get on the pitch.

Despite that, the Scotland manager claimed he is “fit and raring to go” after including the 32-year-old in his initial 28-man squad for Germany. And he added that it has been Rangers’ choice not to use Jack in recent games rather than being robbed of his services.

The Belgian disputes that and says it would be “Impossible” for the player to line up against Celtic in tomorrow’s Scottish Cup final, meaning any involvement for Jack will be from the bench.

He said: “I can only say that until now he has just trained eight times with the team and played 45 minutes with the B team. So he is not fit, fit, to play a high-intensity game after being months out.

“The national team is something else. They don’t play Saturday, they play in a few weeks. That’s a totally different story. Looking towards the Final, I can say that you cannot start the game with Ryan Jack. It’s impossible.

“I wish we could as he was really good when he was fit in the moments when he was playing for me. As a player he has a lot of qualities but he’s not fit enough to start a game like this with the intensity around it.”

Clarke had said: “I know he has been fit at his club for a couple of weeks now. They have chosen not to play him, that is their choice, but Ryan is fit and raring to go.”