Rangers winger Jordan Jones will emerge stronger from his disastrous Old Firm debut, according to Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill.
Jones was dismissed for a wild lunge on Celtic defender Moritz Bauer just 20 minutes after coming off the bench during the Hoops’ 2-0 win at Ibrox.
To cap a miserable cameo, the former Kilmarnock favourite suffered a serious knee injury as a result of the lunge and is in the midst of a significant stint on the sidelines.
Ryan Kent injury update as Rangers expect winger back after international break
It means Jones will be unable to play any part in the remainder of Northern Ireland’s Euro 2020 qualifying group and, ahead of tomorrow’s clash against Holland, O’Neill revealed that the 24-year-old has been ceaselessly apologetic about the incident.
O’Neill said: “If Jordan has apologised to me once, he has apologised 100 times. It was a rash moment. Players do that. Players have moments of madness.
“I think his actions post that game were good.
“He was very open about his apology to the Celtic player in question and he knows he was in the wrong.
"That was his first experience of an Old Firm game. He was maybe a little bit disappointed that he didn't get a chance to start.
“I saw him play against Legia Warsaw in the Europa League midweek game a few days before the Celtic match and he played very well, making a big difference when he came into it.
"These are all things he will have to learn from. Jordan is very disappointed he is missing our group games and he is disappointed he is missing the chance to establish himself at Rangers, but he will learn from his actions.
“I have no doubt he will come back strong and be ready to play and be as keen as ever to show what he's all about for us and his club.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here