Former Barcelona captain Gheorghe Popescu has claimed Ianis Hagi has been frozen out at Rangers because of commercial reasons and not sporting ones.

The Ibrox playmaker is back in his Romanian homeland on international duty and looks set to feature in his first games of the season when his country face Kosovo tonight and Lithuania on Monday.

His future at Ibrox looks bleak after Rangers boss Philippe Clement made clear at the weekend he won't play for the club again after he failed to win a move before the transfer window closed.

And Popescu - who is the president and brother-in-law of Hagi's famous father Ghorghe's club in Romania, Farul Constanța, has offered his view on Hagi's situation at Rangers.

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He said: "I hope that things will improve at some point, that Ianis will play again for Rangers regardless.

"He has shown there both at domestic and European levels that he can be of great value to them.

"So the situation with the manager of the club and Ianis is a strange one.

"But I believe his situation at Rangers is not a sporting matter....it's a commercial one."