Rangers forward Hamza Igamane added to Russell Martin’s woes by refusing to come off the bench in the club’s 1-1 draw at St Mirren.
The Scottish side needed a 78th minute equaliser through Findlay Curtis to salvage a draw following Jonah Ayunga’s opener just after the half-hour mark.
But the Glaswegian giants failed to nick a dramatic winner in a result that sees them draw their opening three matches.
Boos rung around the away end at the SMiSA Stadium with Martin overseeing their worst domestic start in 36 years.
Rangers sit six points bitter rivals Celtic already, with Martin becoming the first permanent manager in the club’s history to win just three of his nine games in charge.
To make matters worse, Martin has revealed that star forward Igamane point-blank refused to come on with Rangers 1-0 down amid his uncertain future away from Ibrox.
Igamane, who scored 16 goals in 46 outings in his opening season last term, was the subject of a rejected bid earlier in the week.
Speaking to Sky Sports after the disappointing draw, Martin was quizzed on why he seemingly decided to leave Igamane on the bench with his team chasing a first league win of the campaign.
To which the ex-Southampton boss declared he did try and get the striker on, with the player telling him he was injured – a claim Martin queried.
What did Russell Martin say about Hamza Igamane?
He said: “Hamza told me he was injured. So, we had a bid for Hamza this week, we rejected it, and all was fine.
“He trained fine yesterday, warmed up fine, I turned around to him at 60 minutes because I wanted two strikers on the pitch – that’s why Gass [Gassama] Danny [Danilo- ended up there, and Hamza told me he is injured.”
Pressed on whether he felt Igamane was ‘effectively refusing to play’, Martin remarked: “I don’t know. I have to trust him, but we’ll see.”
Commenting on how he plans to deal with the issue, Martin stated: “The issue is that the transfer window is still open and there are people with one eye out and one eye in.
“We need people to be all in all the time at this football club, we really need that.
“There are too many people uncertain, who are still trying to think, ‘Maybe there’s something there’ for them.
“The window needs to shut quickly and in-house we have to make sure we have people that really, really want to be here.
“I’m calm about it. Kevin [Thelwell] and Patrick [Stewart] are aware of it, and we will see where it goes.”
As for whether Igamane has any future at Ibrox, Martin said: “It’s 15-20 minutes after the game, so I don’t know where it goes. We will have to wait and see.”
Having his say on the incident, ex-Scotland international Charlie Adam believes that Martin had his reasons in calling out Igamane’s refusal instead of keeping it a private matter.
Asked by talkSPORT co-commentator Sam Matterface on whether Martin would have said anything if Rangers’ form was different, Adam stated: “If everything was okay and everything was rosy in the garden, then he probably wouldn’t have said that.
“But because there’s a little bit of a tough time at the moment, and they’re going through a little bit of pain.
“Yeah, of course he’s tried to say the reasons, that these are the people you don’t want at your football club, and this is why this football club’s been a lot of problems for many years in terms of the mentality within the dressing room.
“So of course he’s let them out, and it’s now up to the club to get a decision to get the player out now.”
Ally McCoist’s verdict
Rangers legend Ally McCoist weighed in on talkSPORT: “It’s a tough one, right? Because we’ve all got an opinion on it, but effectively, we don’t know.
“If he says he’s injured himself in the warm-up, there’s not a lot you can do about it. Right?
“I find it very, very strange, you know, at that time. But I’m talking to you as a man that has effectively injured himself in a warm-up of a cup final and had to pull out. So it can happen, right? It can happen. But there’s just something not right about it. See, if he’s not injured, you fine him as much as you possibly can. And they’re in a position now, and I don’t want to contradict myself regarding the Alexander Isak situation and the Yoanne Wissa situation, but it’s appalling.
“If he is fit to play and he said, no, I’m injured, I’m not going on, then that’s diabolical. I just like to tell you the truth. It’s absolutely diabolical. But it’s a very, very difficult thing to prove, right?
“The bottom line is, Jeff, I don’t know. The lad might have injured himself in the warm-up. And if that’s the case, as I said, I’ve done it myself. So it is possible.
“But you can tell he wants away.”
Do it differently
Alan Pardew, however, believes Martin would’ve been in better mind to keep that news private.
“I’m not the only Premier League manager or manager of any level who’s had that professionally happen to them,” Pardew said on The Final Word.
“Sometimes, 90 per cent of the time, the fans and the media base won’t know about it because you don’t need to make it public a little bit.
“You just have to keep it in-house. And I would suggest Russell maybe should have done that.
“I understand why he’s done it. This all comes back to what we were talking about earlier, when the window is still open in this first month of the season. It’s chaos for football managers.
“And I don’t think even owners actually understand. They know, they sense it, they sympathise for you as the manager. But they don’t really get it, how bad it is in the dressing room, how much uncertainty it causes, how much friction it causes.
“Some players are really angry. You know, the Alexander Isak one at Liverpool tomorrow [Monday], right?
“Some of those players in that changing room are going to be angry with him. And some are going to be with him. About, you know, it’s an £100 million movie, he wants to better himself, that might be me. So, all this is, you know, bubbling under the surface at the minute.”
Things could go from bad to worse for Martin – and Rangers – with the club on the cusp of crashing out of the Champions League at the play-off stage as they look to overturn a 3-1 first leg defeat to Club Brugge on Wednesday.