Rangers face the potential loss of four key players for over a month during the crucial festive period because of this year's rescheduled African Cup of Nations.
And Cyriel Dessers, Mohamed Diomande, Hamza Igamane and Nasser Djiga could miss massive away games at Celtic, Aberdeen and Hearts.
The huge tournament in Africa is usually played over the months of January and February, but this year's Finals will be played in December and January in Morocco.
FIFA changed the dates because of the new look format of the Champions League, which has key league stages games in late January and the original plan to play AFCON this summer was scrapped after the Club World Cup was expanded and scheduled there instead.
That has left the tournament to be scheduled around the festive period, which would be bad news for Rangers.
As things stand, Dessers would play for Nigeria, Diomande would represent Ivory Coast, Igamane would be in the squad of hosts Morocco and Djiga would play for Burkina Faso at the tournament.
All four countries have qualified.
Read more:
-
Ex-Rangers boss puts asking price on Ibrox star 'bound for Premier League'
-
Rangers injury update as Russell Martin confirms two players ruled out vs Dundee
FIFA have yet to announce the minimum period that clubs have to release their players, but it could potentially lead to the quartet missing five league games and a Scottish Cup tie.
And the bad news for Rangers is that they include arguably their three hardest away trips of the season - to Celtic, Aberdeen and Hearts, with the Old Firm game on January 3 at Parkhead.
They would also be scheduled to miss home games against Motherwell and St Mirren, depending on how far the teams get in the tournament.
It's the seventh African Cup of Nations in a row that has not gone ahead as originally scheduled due to a variety of reasons, including instability in Libya, an outbreak of Ebola in Guinea, delays in the construction of stadiums in Cameroon, Covid and the rainy season in the Ivory Coast.
But the new schedule looks certain to mean a major headache for Ibrox boss Russell Martin.
