Philippe Clement confident ‘there will be a solution’ to John Lundstram contract

Philippe Clement is confident that John Lundstram will extend his contract at Rangers.

The 30-year-old midfielder, who signed from Sheffield United in 2021, has found good form since the Belgian boss took over at Ibrox last October but his current deal runs out in the summer.

Ahead of the home cinch Premiership game against Hibernian on Saturday, Clement was asked if he was hopeful and confident of Lundstram staying in Govan.

He said: “Yes, I am totally confident about that, that there’s a lot of love from both sides, so that there will be a solution.”

Clement was pleased to report that Abdallah Sima, Ross McCausland, Kieran Dowell and Dujon Sterling are back in training and in contention for Saturday following recovery from various injuries, although Ridvan Yilmaz is  out and a doubt for next week’s Old Firm game against Celtic at Ibrox, with Oscar Cortes, Ryan Jack and Danilo still on the sidelines.

Attacker, Sima, 22  is on loan from Brighton and had notched 15 goals this season before picking up a thigh injury in January while with the Senegal squad at the Africa Cup of Nations.

Of his returning players in general, and on Sima on particular, the Gers boss said: “They are contention but of course not to play 90 minutes – then it is about choices, if they can play 15, 20 minutes you cannot of course have four or five players like that on the bench.

“So we need to take that into account and make good choices.

“Of course Sima has been out a long time so you cannot expect miracles from the start but he has shown his quality, he has his power, his pace, he has the appetite for goals and he came back to training in a good way, so that’s positive.

“It’s about building rhythm again, making him stronger again and then I think he is going to play an important part in this last two months.”

Left-back Yilmaz withdrew from the Turkey squad over the weekend after limping out of Friday’s friendly defeat in Hungary with a reported thigh strain.

Clement said: “It is not going to be long, long term.

“We are going to see next week.

“There is a possibility that he can to be fit for next week but it is still a doubt so we will see next week.”