Ovie Ejaria - Rangers

‘Liverpool have to almost take charge of this’ - Gerrard won’t stand in way of Ejaria return

Steven Gerrard has admitted Liverpool may need to “take charge” of the Ovie Ejaria situation and won’t block a return of the youngster to Liverpool

The 21-year-old midfielder joined Rangers on loan over the summer, but recently deleted all references to the club from his social media accounts.

Ejaria was left out of the squad that traveled to Austria to face Rapid Vienna in the Europa League, where Rangers were knocked out at the end of the group stage on Thursday.

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Gerrard had promised to speak with Ejaria about his future, but now admits he's uncertain if there is an issue with the midfielder.

“That's what I'm going to try and find out during the conversations,” Gerrard said.

“At times, he has looked fantastic but I think his form has dipped slightly in the last couple of days, so I need to find out.

“Ovie is a very quiet kid, he doesn't give you much. I might have to dig deep to try and find out what's going on.

“He's a young kid, he's living away from his family. There might be other stuff going on in his life that I'm not aware of yet.”

Gerrard admitted the situation may well be beyond his control, and Liverpool, where the Rangers manager starred as a player for most of his career, may be the ones who have to make the call on Ejaria’s short-term future.

Either way, Gerrard says he will not keep an unhappy player in the squad and is open to letting Ejaria return to Anfield in January.

“The reality is he's a Liverpool player and Liverpool have almost got to take charge of this.

“Yes, we've got a loan situation with Ovie but we wouldn't keep a kid who was unhappy. I wouldn't stand in any kid's way whether he was signed with us or on loan.

“I want players here who are committed and want to help and want to play here.”

Steven Gerrard Umar Sadiq Rangers 2018-19

Rangers have already suffered through one loan failure as Roma youngster Umar Sadiq has already left the Scottish club after an unsuccessful stint this season.

Despite potentially losing those two players, Gerrard is not expecting a very busy January for Rangers.

“I don't think we need drastic changes in the next window,” he added.

“I think it's more important to get some help in terms of quality. We need to add more quality to the current players. They need help in the dressing room in certain areas of the pitch.

“January is a complicated window. A lot of teams don't want to let players go, inflation comes to prices because they know what you are looking for and they own it. It's very difficult.

“But the next two windows are very important for us as a team, I'm very aware of that.”

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