Rangers: Steven Gerrard 'let down' as five players self-isolate after Covid breaches

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Rangers' Bongani ZunguImage source, SNS
Image caption,

Bongani Zungu is one of five players named by Rangers manager Steven Gerrard

Rangers manager Steven Gerrard says he has been "let down" by five players who have breached Covid-19 regulations.

Gerrard confirmed Bongani Zungu, Nathan Patterson, Calvin Bassey, Dapo Mebude and Brian Kinnear are self-isolating.

The players will be fined, with the club "in dialogue with the SFA and government moving forward to find the solution in terms of those boys".

"I am trying to move forward and focus on the important things," Gerrard told Rangers TV.

Of the five, Zungu, Patterson and Bassey would all have been in contention for a place in the squad for Thursday's Europa League last-32 tie with Royal Antwerp.

Mebude is on loan at Championship side Queen of the South, and goalkeeper Kinnear is a youth player.

Following an investigation, the manager confirmed the players breached strict lockdown rules after a party was broken up by police in the early hours of Sunday morning.

A Police Scotland spokesman said: "We received a report of a gathering at a property in Hayburn Lane, Glasgow, around 1.10am on Sunday, 14 February.

"Officers attended and those in attendance left. Ten people were issued with fixed penalty notices for breaching coronavirus regulations."

On Monday, Scotland's first minister Nicola Sturgeon responded to a question about the incident by urging football to "make sure your house is in order".

The breach comes two months after Rangers players Jordan Jones and George Edmundson were banned by the club for two weeks for attending an illegal house party.

Northern Irish winger Jones and English defender Edmundson were subsequently given seven-match bans by the Scottish FA and both moved on loan to English clubs in January - Jones to Sunderland and Edmundson to Derby County.

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