ALCOHOL IS OFF LIMITS UNTIL RANGERS RETURN FROM USA

MARK WARBURTON has banned alcohol from the Rangers training camp here in South Carolina. The Ibrox boss is allowing his players free rein to determine how they spend their downtime in Charleston. But he has also ordered daily urine tests to ensure they are properly hydrated and not flouting his booze ban until after they face Charleston Battery next Wednesday. Warburton said: ‘There’s no alcohol at all on the trip. The only respite will be after the game next week when we’ll have a private area for them at the hotel to have a couple of beers to mark the end of our time here. ‘But (before that) there will be no alcohol. There will be urine tests every morning, so you can check everything. But you have to trust people. If you don’t, they shouldn’t be in the squad. If you don’t have trust, the whole squad falls apart. ‘We try to treat them like adults. They’re working three times a day and they can do whatever they want in their downtime to take their minds off the next session. ‘Some are going for a coffee, two are playing chess, some are sitting around the pool. They can sit by the pool for two hours and enjoy the sunshine because they’ve got 10 months in Glasgow coming up.’ Warburton is taking his squad on a skeet-shooting expedition to build team spirit. On a previous pre-season at former club Brentford, his squad entered a fishing competition — with the Englishman joking he ended up in hand-to-tentacle combat with an octopus. ‘That was in Florida and it was unbelievably good for bonding,’ he said. ‘Forty of us went out in five teams of eight. Everyone put in $50 and the winner took the lot. ‘There were guys hauling in octopuses, squids and all sorts. It was great. ‘We were out on the boat for four hours, then they cooked the fish the boys had caught in the hotel. ‘They loved it and were still talking about it a year later. ‘I didn’t win, though. Getting hit by an octopus was as near as I came! ‘This time the lads want to go skeet-shooting — don’t ask me why.’