SOUTTAR RACE TO FACE PANA

Surgery delay gives new boss Euro headache

- BY KEITH JACKSON

JOHN SOUTTAR is racing to be fit for next month's Champions League clash with Panathinaikos after delaying summer surgery to team up with the Scotland squad.

Record Sport understands that the 28-year-old went under the knife in London last week to have an ongoing hernia issue fixed after returning to the UK following a friendly international double-header against Iceland and Liechtenstein.

But he is now up against the clock with a little over one month to go before the Greeks arrive in Glasgow for the first leg of a multimillion pound qualificatio showdown at Ibrox.

And the news will have come as an unwelcome surprise for new boss Russell Martin who may want to know why the club's medical team allowed his key centre-half to put off the surgery for three full weeks in the first place.

Martin is hoping for his recruitment team to oversee a huge rebuild but the clock is already ticking towards his first game in charge with a £60million-plus UEFA jackpot on the line.