Alex Lowry has been ruled out for up to two months after returning to Rangers.

The Ibrox starlet, 20, had been on loan at Hearts but returned to his parent club earlier this week.

Rangers had planned to organise a new loan move for Lowry to aid his development after his stint at Hearts.

However, Philippe Clement has now revealed an injury blow for Lowry. And he stated Rangers were not aware of the "severity" of his injury when he returned to Glasgow.

The Rangers boss explained: "Alex Lowry returned from Hearts with an injury - and will be out for the next 6-8 weeks.

"We didn't know the severity of his injury when he first returned."

Clement had said earlier this week that Lowry was expected to leave the club on loan again this month. Before the injury setback, Clement said: "The clear plan with Alex [Lowry] is we want him on loan to get minutes this season.

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"We want him to go on loan and get stronger by playing regular games. We will see what is the best place for him to go and develop."

Hearts manager Steven Naismith had explained Lowry was allowed to return to Rangers with the player's "best interests in mind".

But there was no suggestion of an injury problem before Clement gave a press conference update on Lowry's condition on Friday afternoon.

“We took the decision to end the loan with Alex’s best interests in mind," said Naismith as Lowry's loan spell was ended.

“There is absolutely no doubting Alex’s talents as a player, and he’s shown in periods what he’s capable of doing on the pitch. But with the competition for places fierce in our squad, he’s probably not going to get the game time that would allow him to develop further, which is one of the reasons he was here in the first place.

“I’ve no doubt he’ll go on to become a top player. He’s a great boy, we thank him for all his efforts at Hearts and wish him well for the future.”