Gerrard urges Gers to play through pain
silence – or we can regroup and pull ourselves together for 90 minutes of football coming up’.
“It’s a huge game. I need to know in the next 24 hours who’s in and who’s not.
“There’s five or six with ice on [after today’s game]. I haven’t really had time to analyse them all individually.
“There are no definite ‘ins’ at the moment. Some people trained today and were OK.
“But there is still more checking to be done on Scott Arfield and Gareth McAuley. I’ll know more [on Thursday].
“Sometimes you have to dig deep into the reserves and play through it. If the injury doesn’t let you do that, tell me. Look me in the eye and say ‘I can’t do it’. Then we’ll go with what we’ve got.
“Sometimes you have to go into football matches and play through a little bit of pain, especially the magnitude of the game coming up.
“We are going to have 50,000 people here roaring us on so I need to know who’s on board and who’s not. If you’re not, fair enough. I understand, I’ll respect the decision, but I need to know who’s with me and who’s not.”
Rangers looked to be heading into derby day on the back of a muchneeded win after Alfredo Morelos fired them in front in the first half.
But a Darren McGregor header five minutes from time denied the Gers as they were held by Neil Lennon’s side for the second time in a week.
“I’ve never, ever played in a derby that hasn’t been mustwin,” he said. “If we were sitting above Celtic right now, I’d be saying it’s must-win.
“No-one should really ever ask a Rangers manager if an Old Firm game is must-win because you are only going to get one answer.”