Caixinha welcomes return of Wilson and Kranjcar for tricky trip to Perth

● Ibrox injury problems beginning to ease but captain Wallace still sidelined

Rangers manager Pedro Caixinha is relieved to see his Ibrox injury crisis take a turn for the better.

The Portuguese coach has confirmed that Danny Wilson and Niko Kranjcar have shaken off calf and knee problems respectively to declare themselves fit for Friday night’s match at St Johnstone. Defender David Bates is also fit again while Jordan Rossiter could return to training next week too.

That would leave Caixinha looking at skipper Lee Wal- lace as his only absentee, with the left-back facing another six weeks out with groin trouble.

Caixinha told Rangerstv: “Maybe next week, Jordan can start training with the team. Niko and Danny started the previous week and will be with us again this week.

“I think David Bates too can join us on Thursday, so that means that the squad is getting completed again and we can have more options.

“All the boys who have been options in the last games have been doing great, doing what we want, and we are happy to have everyone on board so we have much more competitiveness which gives us more doubts in terms of the selection of the players. That is great for us.”

However, Caixinha admits he may have to handle Bruno Alves and his defensive understudy Ross Mccrorie carefully as they arrive back late from international action with Portugal and Scotland Under-21s respectively. “It’s going to be a short week as we play on Friday, so the players who will play on Tuesday like Bruno, and we hope he plays against Switzerland, will only have three days to recover,” he explained.

“The same will happen with Ross who is playing in Latvia. This is the reality, and we need to organise things in that way. The boys who are here are doing a great job and the only thing we are thinking about at the moment is getting three more points on Friday.”