GAEL BIGIRIMANA will not kick a ball again this season after confirming he has a condition which prevents him from playing for Rangers.

The Newcastle United midfielder is one of five Magpies on loan at the Glasgow club in a deal set up by Derek Llambias and Mike Ashley, but owing to SPFL rules regarding the undisclosed infection, he cannot play, nor can he return to Tyneside.

The deals taking Bigirimana, Haris Vuckic, Kevin Mbabu, Remi Streete and Shane Ferguson to Ibrox in January are costing Rangers an estimated £1,000 a week per player, which will cost the troubled club £65,000 by the end of the season, and only one of those players, Vuckic, has been able to turn out for the club with the rest all injured.

Bigirimana confirmed that he was aware of the condition but did not know that Scottish rules would prevent him from playing.

“I didn’t know I wouldn’t be able to play. I didn’t think it would be a problem that would stop me playing. Nobody told me," Bigirimana told the Daily Record.

“Yes, I knew I had a problem but I didn’t think it would stop me playing here because that problem didn’t stop me playing in England. But obviously different FAs have different rules.

“It’s obviously disappointing but my disappointment cannot change what has happened and what is happening. But I do hope Rangers get back where they belong.”

Llambias left Ibrox last month after the SFA ruled that Ashley could not invest in Newcastle and Rangers at the same time, with the club now falling under the rule of Dave King after a supporters vote.

The deal to take the Newcastle players on loan has been branded the "Newcastle Five", and with short-term deals unable to be reversed, all five must play in Scotland or not at all.

Bigirimana is disappointed that his short spell in Glasgow has ended on a sour note.

He said: “I came here because I wanted to help Rangers out and I’ve come to like the place so much and the club as well. But what’s happened has happened and if I can’t play for Rangers because of my medical condition then hopefully, when this gets sorted, one day I’ll come back. Hopefully I’ll get another chance to come here on loan or permanently.

“I don’t know when I will be able to play again. I can’t tell you that to be honest. But it won’t be this season. I am being treated well and everyone at the club has been really nice to me since I came here.”