🚨Breaking: Jose Mourinho claims Rangers have unfair advantage over Fenerbahce

Barry Ferguson could hardly have wished for better news as Rangers prepare to make that daunting trip to Turkey for a Europa League meeting with Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce.

They say things always come in threes.

And the returning Rangers legend watched on in horror as his beloved club lost at Ibrox for the third straight match at home to Motherwell on Saturday, while also gifting their opposition a 2-0 lead just like against Kilmarnock and St Mirren in the seven days prior.

A repeat scenario in Istanbul on Thursday, and Rangers could probably kiss their hopes of a quarter-final berth goodbye.

So the sighs of relief were audible all the way over in Turkey when John Souttar came through Tuesday’s training session unscathed alongside Leon Balogun.

Barry Ferguson expects Souttar to make a big ‘difference’ to a side who have badly missed his physicality, discipline and leadership skills.

Predecessor Philippe Clement called the Scotland international Rangers’ ‘best’ defender. The struggles of Robin Propper and Clinton Nsiala during Souttar’s absence suggests that Clement was at least right about something.

But while Rangers are welcoming back a few familiar faces at the ideal time – Dujon Sterling also made his return off the bench against Motherwell – Jose Mourinho and Fenerbahce are not quite so fortunate.

Jose Mourinho says Fenerbahce could be without four stars in Rangers clash

Both Fred and Bright Osayi-Samuel are missing through suspension after picking up yellow cards in the play-off against Anderlecht.

That is bad enough. Fred, formerly of Manchester United, has four goals and eight assists this season. He is often the man who sets the tempo both on and off the ball in the centre of the park.

The formerly Rangers-linked Osayi-Samuel, meanwhile, has been Mourinho’s go-to right-sided option throughout the Europa League so far.

In Oguz Aydin, Mourinho is without another of his goal threats. The versatile winger has five goals and six assists this term but was left out of Fenerbahce’s Europa League roster for January signings Milan Skriniar, Filip Kostic and Anderson Talisca.

Furthermore, the man who was expected to take Fred’s place – Ismail Yuksek featured when the Brazilian was unavailable against Athletic Bilbao – is unlikely to play either due to a torn thigh muscle.

“It’s not just Fred and Osayi,” Mourinho sighs, while taking aim at a suspension policy he believes unfairly works against those who were forced to go through the play-offs. Then again, his detractors will argue that Fenerbahce only have themselves to blame against a Rangers outfit who secured a top-eight berth and thus a fast-track into the last-16.

Mourinho hits out at Europa League suspension policy

“There’s also Oguz Aydin [unavailable]. He’s an important player in the team and he’s not on the European list.

“When you play so many matches, it’s inevitable for yellow cards to accumulate. I don’t think it’s fair for these cards to be valid against teams that have played four matches less than us.

“Fred has been performing great recently. He is a big absence. I don’t think Ismail is ready yet. We will decide in today’s training but I don’t think he is ready.

“We have faced many such difficulties, but we never cried. We somehow find a solution. But yes, Fred is an important missing piece for us.”

Mourinho does have the likes of Edin Dzeko, Dusan Tadic, Sebastian Szymanski and Youssef En-Nesyri, however, the headline talents of a Fenerbahce side brimming with European experience.

En-Nesyri, the Moroccan marskman with a spring of a salmon, won the Europa League twice with Sevilla. He already has six goals in the current campaign, taking his tally to 26 across all competitions.

The prolific En-Nesyri is likely to provide a stern test of Souttar’s fitness.