Jordan Jones and George Edmundson are unlikely to play again this year after the Rangers duo were handed hefty seven-match bans as punishment for breaching Covid-19 rules.
The pair broke strict government guidelines when they attended an indoor house party earlier this month.
Northern Ireland winger Jones, 26, and 23-year-old English defender Edmundson were given two-week club suspensions and were also issued with fixed penalties by police officers called out to break up the early-hours get-together in Glasgow’s west end.
Now the Scottish Football Association has also taken action by charging the pair over the incident.
The seven-match bans mean Jones and Edmundson, who are not in Rangers’ Europa League squad, will not be free to return to domestic action for Steven Gerrard’s team until the December 30 clash with St Mirren – or the Boxing Day clash with Hibernian if they see off League One side Falkirk in their Betfred Cup opener to seal a place in the quarter-finals on December 16-17.
But both players face an uphill struggle to win over their furious manager.
Jones’ part in this latest incident comes after he spent much of last season out of action with a knee injury sustained while he got himself sent off for a reckless challenge on Celtic’s Moritz Bauer in the opening Old Firm clash of the campaign.
Edmundson, meanwhile, has struggled to force his way past the likes of Connor Goldson, Filip Helander and Leon Balogun to claim a regular spot in his manager’s line-up.
The party took place just hours after Rangers had beaten Kilmarnock at Rugby Park on November 1. Neither player was involved in the game but they were both due to report to training the following day.
However, they were ordered to stay away from the club’s Auchenhowie base after Ibrox bosses were informed of the illegal gathering.
Under Scottish Government rules at the time, residents of Glasgow were prohibited from socialising inside homes with those from another household.
Officers called out to break up the party discovered the Rangers duo and a number of other revellers inside the residential flat.
Gerrard later told the duo that they had “badly let down their team-mates and the supporters of the club” with their actions, while Jones was left out of the Northern Ireland squad for last week’s Euro 2020 play-off with Slovakia.
The SFA took action after issuing notices of complaint which accused the players of breaching the governing body’s disciplinary rules 24 and 77, which cover requirements to comply with Covid rules and the failure to act in the best interests of the game.
