'No way of foreseeing Rangers' defensive injury crisis' - Clement

Rangers manager Philippe Clement says there was no way of foreseeing the club's defensive injury crisis, and defended the work done to improve his squad's fitness.

When he took over from Michael Beale, the Belgian said there were a "a lot of things" he would do differently in training in order to minimise injuries.

The Ibrox club are currently without captain James Tavernier, Leon Balogun, John Souttar and Neraysho Kasanwirjo in defensive areas, as well as goalkeeper Jack Butland.

Dujon Sterling is also a doubt for Thursday's Scottish Premiership trip to Dens Park, but Clement insists the current situation is different to last season's injury woes.

"It's a totally different situation," said Clement, who will also be without suspended midfielder Nicolas Raskin and Tom Lawrence for the game against Tony Docherty's side.

"Last season, we had in big spells, 10 to 12 players out. Now we have four for sure. OK, Jack also, but that's an accident. It's not really an injury. It's a contact injury. And some of the others are also contact injuries. that's part of football.

"The difficult thing is, it's all in one position. So that's a difficulty for every club in the world. You cannot predict that and it is not possible to have seven centre backs in your squad.

"So we never been in a situation this season that we have had 12 injuries at the same time and the club also worked really hard to strengthen some departments.

"So there are really good steps made in that way, so we cannot compare with the situation that was last season."

Clement says he needs to find solutions in order to muddle through, and cited Ridvan Yilmaz's performances out of position at right-back.

He hinted he will also look to counter Dundee's set-piece strength having been undone there in the 3-3 draw against Hibs.

"We need to be creative, to have the good level with the defence and not to concede the goals that we conceded against Hibs on the two set pieces.

"I need to make choices around that, also towards this game, because it's also one of the strengths of Dundee."