Hackney was absent from Ibrox as Boro continued their pre-season preparations with a 2-2 draw that saw their Scottish opponents claw back a two-goal deficit to claim a share of the spoils.
The midfielder has been the subject of ongoing transfer speculation all summer, with Ipswich Town understood to have made a formal inquiry about his position, but Edwards insists there is nothing brewing on the transfer front that would have forced Hackney’s absence this afternoon.
Instead, the Boro boss revealed the midfielder had suffered a knee issue that, while ruling him out of today’s game, should not be too serious.
“H (Hackney) felt a little bit of pain in the back of his knee yesterday and, at the minute, we can’t risk anything,” said Edwards. “We wouldn’t want to do that with any player at this time.
“It’s nothing to do with anything transfer wise. There was genuine pain there and it’s just not worth the risk. We kept him at home where he’s able to get some treatment.
“Listen, we have got good players and there is always going to be interest and speculation. But this one was genuinely just a bit of pain in the knee and is genuinely nothing to worry about.”
Rav van den Berg was also missing from today’s game, although the defender, who has also been the subject of strong transfer interest this summer, was present at Ibrox.
The Dutchman started the pre-match warm-up, but suffered a back spasm that meant he was withdrawn from the starting line-up moments before kick-off, with Neto Borges stepping up to take his place.
“He (van den Berg) suffered a back spasm unfortunately in warm-up,” said Edwards. “It was a shame because like all the lads he was looking forward to playing in this one.
“Big credit to Neto for coming in late notice and then getting the goal as well. I thought he performed well too, which was good. But yeah, hopefully for Rav that’s not too bad.”
Boro claimed a two-goal lead when Borges and Fry both scored from set-pieces, and while Rangers scored two second-half goals of their own to level the scores, Edwards was delighted with his side’s attacking play, which he felt was a marked step up from what was delivered in last week’s defeat at Bradford.
“I think it was a really good, positive performance,” said the Boro boss. “I thought we built on some of the work we’ve been doing over the last three weeks or so and I saw a really cohesive, organised team that was aggressive in the right moments and carried a real threat.
“I was really, really pleased with us. I loved the look of us, especially in that first half. We carried on that impetus in the second half as well, but maybe as we started to dip a little bit – because we wanted to push people for minutes a bit as well – they bring on one or two decent players and put some pressure on us.
“I guess that’s to be expected because there is an expectation here. There’s no friendlies, they want to win the game. Then I saw a different side to us.
“The build up to the second goal is a bit disappointing. There are probably four mistakes that lead to us conceding the equaliser. But we didn’t let it bother us too much and remained pretty solid. Overall, I’m very pleased. There were some very good individual performances.”