Philippe Clement says Oscar Cortes arrived at Rangers with no injury history and hopes the current crisis he’s living through is an isolated incident in the Colombian’s career.

Cortes, 20, impressed after arriving on loan from Lens last season, hitting the ground running with smooth performances from the left-wing following Abdallah Sima’s injury in the same position.

However, since limping off at the venue Clement’s side travel to today in late February Cortes has played a mere handful of minutes. Entering the tunnel at Rugby Park on February 28 would be the start of an ongoing struggle. The attacker limped off at Tynecastle on the opening day of the season and then suffered a training ground injury last month following 45 minutes against Dundee United. Any hopes of a sustained period in the team have twice been dashed by knocks that Clement insists are unlucky, isolated incidents - not evidence of a systemic issue.

Speaking before Rangers’ return to Scottish Premiership action, Clement suggested that the young winger did not sign up in Glasgow with a history of knocks and niggles. The club will pay an obligated fee for Cortes’ services next summer to make a loan move permanent and by that time, the Rangers manager hopes this period of inconsistency will be behind a player those inside Ibrox still hold in high regard.

“First, I want to say that before Oscar came to Rangers, he didn't have one injury in all his career,” Clement emphasised.

“Not in Lens, not in Colombia, nothing. It's not a player that the club wanted to bring in with a big injury record. Those are things we are looking much more into than in the past. In the past, there have been several transfers with players having a lot of injuries before and it kept on going here. Oscar was unlucky last season with the injury he suffered. This is a different one than what he had last season.

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“He's been unlucky in this period. He's here nine months, not longer than that, and has been unlucky in that way. But he's not a player where the medical staff thinks that he's somebody who gets fast injuries or easy injuries. That he's not robust enough or whatever, [these injuries] can also happen in the career of football. I hope for him, this is the last one, maybe this is the last one of his career. I hope for him and it's a possibility.

“In all the transfers that have been made, there's a clear voice from the medical staff to dig into the past of players and to have their opinion about players who are in the building. If they're sustainable [and able] to play a lot of games in a season and if they're strong enough for that. That's one of the important points to make a decision about signing a player or not and was the same case with Oscar.”

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Asked if any member of his squad wouldn’t be risked on Kilmarnock’s Astroturf, Clement said: “No, maybe with Ross [McCausland] we need to see what we’ll do in the next two days (given his recent knock) but we don’t have players in the squad who will get injured because they play on an artificial pitch or have had a bad experience from that way in the past."

Sunday marks over a year since Clement first took charge of Rangers after replacing Michael Beale as manager. That day, a 4-0 win over Hibs, will feel like a lifetime ago for the Belgian who’s been through endless executive change, a squad rebuild and carried out tasks far beyond his remit since.

Asked if the scrutiny had been a step up compared to his past career, Clement said: “I don't know if you know the French media or the Belgian media, it's not a big difference boys really!

“No, but a lot of things happened in the club that I didn't expect one year ago - we look forward to making things better.

“Having challenges, I think it's part of this job. I don't think there are many seasons that managers can say afterwards, 'this season was really easy - no challenges, no injuries, nothing happened in the club.' It doesn't work that way but people always talk about the good things after and they forget the challenges along the way."

Since the exit of CEO James Bisgrove in May and John Bennett’s spell as chairman came to an end due to health reasons a couple of months ago, Clement has been thrust into the limelight all the more heavily. For a long time, the manager was the only voice from the club making any form of public communication. Answering for decisions he not only wasn’t around to influence but that fell well outside of his remit.

John Gilligan’s appointment as interim chairman has afforded Clement another ally while key leadership positions are filled at Ibrox. He’s hopeful that things “are going to change fast now”, raising expectations that appointments at a senior level are not far away.

“Regularly I’m speaking to [John Gilligan] and also to George Letham and Graham Park. They keep me informed about how things are evolving at the club,” Clement added.

“Yes, I’ve had to do more things than I did before in the club but that's going to change fast now, I think in the next couple of weeks. And for sure in the next couple of months.”