Thank Goodness For The Rain

Midfielder Kevin Thomson was the only Rangers player relaxed about the cancellation of the first friendly of their short German tour. The cancellation meant he did not suffer the disappointment of missing yet another game. Thomson was hoping to pick up some game time in Germany for the first time since damaging his cruciate ligament in a 4-0 victory at Kilmarnock in November. However, he had to rule himself out of the meeting with Sportfreunde Lotte - which was rained off - after his knee swelled up following the team flight. The game was put back by 24 hours but had to be scrapped as the waterlogged pitch had not recovered. This gave Thomson more time to recover from the flight and a chance of appearing in today's friendly against Nuremberg.

Thomson said: "I felt great on Friday morning when I first woke up but there was a bit of fluid in it and it was a bit more puffy than usual. That's because of the flight from Glasgow we had on Thursday and it meant I wouldn't have played at Lotte so I wasn't too bothered that the game was cancelled. While there are 20-odd frustrated boys in the squad at the moment, there's one happy one as well. It's a wee bit frustrating I had the issue with my knee but it's all part and parcel of coming back from a serious injury. In the first 10 or 12 days of pre-season, it was a bit like that where I'd feel fantastic and move well sometimes but find a wee bit of fluid there on other occasions. I always knew it would be a case of taking a couple of steps forward and one back every now and then but I'm still on target to get some game time over here."

While Thomson is keen to return to action after a long enforced lay off, former Rangers midfielder Jorg Albertz believes the rest of the squad will benefit from their less strenuous summer. Rangers began their Champions League campaign at this time last year, following their run to three cup finals the previous season, and lost out to FK Kaunas. But their first title victory on four years propelled them straight into the Champions League group stages and Albertz believes that will help them hit the ground running this term. Albertz said: "I think it has been very important for Rangers to have a long holiday this summer and they will have benefited from that so much. After 2007/08, I wondered how the team would cope after playing 68 competitive games and at the start of the next season you could see they were still suffering. People might say they are professional footballers and they should be able to cope with that but when you are playing in big matches with so much pressure on your shoulders every time you step on the pitch that eventually takes its toll. You could see that against Kaunas. That was a freak result but I think a large part of that was because the players had not recharged their batteries properly. I am happy that they have finally had time off after winning the double and I am sure this will help them domestically and in Europe this season."