'It wasn't a holiday' - Rangers boss speaks on Italy trip and delivers huge injury boost for Celtic semi-final

Rangers boss Michael Beale has revealed he will boosted by the return of two first-team stars for next weekend's Scottish Cup semi-final with Celtic.

Ryan Kent and Connor Goldson will miss the trip to Pittodrie to face Aberdeen on Sunday but are expected to be back for the clubs biggest match of the season when they take on their rivals at Hampden Park for a place in the Scottish Cup final. The duo were among a number of players unavailable for last Saturday’s Premiership victory over St Mirren at Ibrox.

Beale provided an update on Scott Wright, Alex Lowry and Antoio Colak has he confirmed he wouldn’t be resting any players in Sunday's game ahead of the semi-final. While there wasn’t positive news around Ryan Jack who is out for three to four weeks.

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"Wright is back in the squad,” he confirmed. “Lowry returns to training tomorrow. Goldson and Kent will make it next weekend. Colak will be touch and go.

"The third European place is in play for Aberdeen. It should be a good game and I am looking forward to the trip against an in-form team. We will play the strongest team available this weekend. From the moment the game ends I will look ahead, but it is a dangerous game to plan ahead.”

Beale confirmed his recent trip to Italy was on Rangers business ahead of the transfer window. He revealed he is “really comfortable” with the direction the club are going in terms of getting work done early.

"It wasn’t a holiday, I was off working for the club in Italy last weekend to meet some contacts and watch some games”, he said. “I love recruitment and looking at players, there will be change. I’ve always been involved, Ross [Wilson] worked more on the agent's side and I worked on the player's side.

"We are in an age with stats everywhere but I want to sit with a player and see if they want to play for Rangers. You also want to clearly chat through their roles and what they can expect at the club. Relationships in football is massive. There will be some new faces in the first stage of pre-season and there is then the second phase of player trading as the window is open for a long time.”

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