Celtic and Rangers have been dealt a blow as their top scorers Scott McDonald and Kris Boyd have both been ruled out for a number of weeks after it was disclosed that both will have to undergo hernia operations.

Rangers striker Kris Boyd will undergo a hernia operation on Tuesday and faces several weeks out. Boyd was substituted during Sunday’s 3-3 draw with Hamilton Accies in the fourth round of the Scottish Cup. Rangers are already without Boyd’s suspended strike partner, Kenny Miller.

And manager Walter Smith will have to face up to the prospect of being without both players. Boyd is in the middle of talks about extending his contract beyond the summer, sits top of the SPL scoring charts with 19 goals and became the league’s all-time record scorer with 160 goals.

“Kris got an injury, which we obviously don’t want at this time because he has been doing so well for us,” Smith told Rangers’ website. “He has scored a lot of goals, but we have to accept he’s injured at the moment. We don’t want to be without him for long.”

Celtic have also confirmed that striker Scott McDonald will undergo a hernia operation in the next few days. The Aussie will travel to Germany for the operation and is expected to be out for a few weeks.

McDonald has scored 64 goals in 127 appearances for Celtic and will be keen to resolve his injury problem. He is Celtic’s top scorer this season but fell out of favour recently with Tony Mowbray resulting in the Aussie striker being benched for the Old Firm derby match. Although he came on in the second half and scored Celtic’s goal in the 1-1 draw.

Both strikers are huge blows to both sides, with Celtic struggling to score goals at the minute the next few weeks will be testing times for Celtic. With the loss of both strikers for Rangers and a mounting injury list, Walter Smith may have to call on the services of youngster Andrew Little once again.

Tagged with: blow, Celtic, injury, Rangers

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