Major festive boost for Rangers as John Souttar prepares to make his long-awaited return in time for St Mirren and Celtic showdowns

John Souttar has given Rangers a huge festive boost by taking part in training ahead of a likely return to action before the end of the year.

The defender hasn’t featured for the Ibrox men since the win at Dundee on November 9 as a result of a muscular injury he picked up in the warm-up before Scotland’s match with Denmark.

With Nasser Djiga away on international duty and Derek Cornelius also injured, manager Danny Rohl has been short on defensive options throughout December.

But the German has revealed that Souttar’s return to the first-team is imminent – with an expected run-out against St Mirren next Tuesday clearing the way for the player to feature at Celtic Park on January 3.

‘John was good yesterday,’ said Rohl. ‘He trained for the first time as part of the session. Let’s see what it means after tomorrow, but it’s a huge step. I’m not sure if it’s enough for the weekend (Motherwell) but, with the games coming now, it helps.’

Asked if the St Mirren match on December 30 was a reasonable target for Souttar, Rohl replied: ‘Could be, yeah. I think when you play every three days, then you have to see. But the big step was yesterday, to come back to a training session. He looks good, he looks fit, this is great.’

Souttar is expected to be back in time for the seismic clash with Celtic on January 3

Boss Danny Rohl admits it will be a relief to see the Scotland defender make his comeback

Cornelius, though, is out of the picture for a while yet. ‘It’s a long term,’ added Rohl. ‘I think it is maybe February.’

Rohl’s unbeaten league start as Rangers manager came to an end at Tynecastle last Sunday as Hearts claimed a 2-1 win which extended the gap between the sides to 12 points.

Rangers thought they had taken an early lead when Manny Fernandez won a header which Bojan Miovski helped over the line.

While the lines drawn by VAR ultimately led to the goal being disallowed, many observers were still unconvinced that the forward was offside at the point Fernandez touched the ball.

‘It’s really tight,’ Rohl offered. ‘Sometimes I’m not sure when you stop the action if it’s really exactly on this point or not.

‘The VAR looked at this. I think we will have this in many, many other games, where it’s so tight and you’re not sure if it’s really offside, this is onside.

‘At the end, it was a decision that was unlucky for us, because really at this moment, I look to the opponent bench, in the stadium, they were impressed about our start in the game, how we were organised, how we played this game.

‘We won a lot of second goals, and it felt really good but, at the end, we have another (negative) result.’

Rangers fans will be delighted to see him back in action by the time Old Firm encounter comes around

Rangers will seek to bounce back on Saturday when they face high-flying Mothwerwell at Ibrox.

With Christmas Day falling on a Thursday and no Premiership games on Boxing Day, the head coach is pleased that his players can spend the 25th with their families.

‘Yesterday, my family arrived after a long, long time which is good,’ he explained.

‘In Germany, Christmas is on the 24th, in the evening, not on the 25th. We now train for three days, and then we’ll give the players the 25th off. Then we have the 26th.

‘We still have four training sessions. It’s the first time since I’ve been here that we have four training sessions in one week.

‘We’re looking forward to all the games that are coming. I’m used to it, in the last three years, it was the same. Games, games, games. It’s not really Christmas. Yeah, we take these few hours, and then we’re looking forward to the next games.’