Steven Gerrard has praised Alfredo Morelos for keeping his mind on the job after the Rangers striker called in police after discovering a man “tampering” with his car.
Police Scotland has removed the Colombian’s Lamborghini sports car for “examination” after Morelos allegedly discovered someone lurking underneath it on Tuesday night.
Reports claim the 23-year-old chased off the suspect but Gerrard was pleased to see his top-scorer keep his focus as he returned to action against Ross County following a three-game ban.
Morelos started the 2-0 win on the bench as the Light Blues took no chances with a nagging calf complaint and was only denied a late goal by Staggies keeper Nathan Baxter.
“I haven’t had a chance to speak to Alfredo as I was only made aware a couple of hours before kick-off,” he said.
“But I’m told it’s a police investigation now so we’ll support that and there’s not much I can say on the incident. The good thing is Alfredo’s fine.
“It’s a very unfortunate situation and not one that happens to you every day but he’s fine because that’s the way he is, pretty laid back.
“He handled the situation extremely well, probably better than I would have done.
“His body and the injury is fine which is the most important thing for me and he’s fine in himself and he’ll be ready for the weekend.
“The kid gets some stick but the type of stuff he has to put up with is part and parcel of being a top footballer but he handles himself pretty well.”
While Morelos showed no ill-effects from either his injury or the late-night car drama, there was concern for Gerrard when opening goalscorer Jermain Defoe had to be taken off on a stretcher.
Rangers were looking to bounce back from Sunday’s defeat at Tynecastle but again laboured through the first 41 minutes.
That changed when Defoe buried an expert finish and he followed that up two minutes into the second half as he set up Scott Arfield for the second.
But a worried hush fell over Ibrox on the hour mark when he slumped to the turf with a calf injury.
Gerrard is hopeful the injury will not keep the veteran out for too long but admits he may need to go into the transfer market before Friday’s deadline in search of extra cover.
Gerrard – whose side remain five points behind Celtic with a game in hand – said: “I’m concerned but I don’t know how long the injury will keep him out.
“I don’t think it’s as bad as going off on a stretcher makes it look. He’s walking about in the dressing room.
“He’ll be scanned in the next 24 hours and we’ll know more about it then. But he has got a calf injury – whether it will be a week, two weeks, three or four weeks, I don’t know.
“I haven’t spoken to our sporting director Ross Wilson about the transfer situation yet. We have a couple of things brewing besides that.”
Defeat at Ibrox came just four days after County slumped 3-0 at Celtic Park but co-manager Stuart Kettlewell says his side will quickly turn their focus to Saturday’s trip to Rugby Park.
“It’s obviously tough,” he said. “We knew it was going to be difficult coming here off the back of the effort we put in at Parkhead on Saturday.
“We can’t be too negative. We’re staying down in Glasgow for the next couple of days to limit the travelling and probably the fight we were looking for would be against Kilmarnock and we have to put all our emphasis into that now.”
