Rangers' head of performance Jordan Milsom reveals benefits of '20-25 percent more' pre-season

Dr Milsom explained how he and the other coaching staff at Ibrox have been keeping players fit during lockdown and how the club have worked since returning to full contact training ahead of the August 1 season kick-off.

Having created bespoke programmes for players - with some understandably returning fitter than others - Milsom outlined the issues regarding the comeback process. But he admits there are benefits to the situation.

Speaking to Rangers TV, he said: "We normally come off a shorter off-season and a shorter pre-season, and now we have effectively had a longer off-season and a longer pre-season. So I think the longer pre-season was important as the first few weeks didn't really look like pre-season.

"So our pre-season now is maybe 20-25 per-cent more than what it normally is. So there can be benefits - the coaches will get more time to technically and tactically work with the squad more than what we would typically get.

"But there are other implications around the volume of friendly games that you can get and the challenges that come with that so I think there are pros and cons to both situations."

Milsom was chuffed with Rangers' stars' fitness levels last season despite watching them play 53 matches including league action and Europa League football. "At the time, it was our 53rd game," he added. "There is always a bit of disparity in the squad as you will have players who have played week-in, week-out and you will have players who will be on the fringes of that and you will have players who aren't getting any game time at all.

"Naturally, that would always exist within most squads who were playing the amount of games we were playing, but the players were in as good a condition to cope with what they were coping with, which was a game every three to four days, which is what they have had to endure from pretty-much the middle of July until the middle of March."