Charlie McCann has opened up on the pain of leaving Rangers.

The Northern Ireland international departed the Ibrox club for Forest Green Rovers last month.

The young midfielder was sold to the League One club, now managed by Duncan Ferguson, for around £350,000.

He had been a standout for Rangers B, and had been afford fleeting opportunities in the first team from the bench too.

While it could have been easy to sit it out at Rangers for the long term, McCann insists he had to take the chance to leave to further his career and gain vital first team football.

He admits it was a tough call, but one that needed to be made. 

McCann hasn't ruled out a return at some point in the future.

He told Daily Record: “It was a really difficult decision for me to make.

“I had to try and weigh up what’s going to be better for me in the long-term. I have the chance of getting regular game time in League One, which is a good standard.

“It was whether that’s going to be more beneficial than sitting around at Rangers, waiting for an opportunity that might not come. Eventually I came to a decision. But it was never going to be easy leaving Rangers.

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“I’ve only been at the club for a year and a half but I genuinely fell in love with it during my time there. So it was a tough call. Hopefully I’ve made the right decision and I can move forward in my career.

“If I was just floating around and playing B team games at Rangers, it would have been straightforward. I was close to the first-team. But yet so far away, if you know what I mean?

“A lot of boys would have been happy to wait at Rangers. But that’s just not in my nature.

“I just felt like I had to go and prove myself. I didn’t want to get to 22 and still be on the fringes.

“I spoke to the manager, as well as Ross Wilson. Both of them, especially Ross, didn’t want me to leave. But they understood why I was going.

“I’ve always said the one thing I want to do in my career is play consistently for Rangers. If I was doing that now, I wouldn’t even be thinking about going anywhere else.

“And I’ll always want to fulfil that ambition in my career, if I can. If I could get back here, and become a Rangers player again, I wouldn’t miss that opportunity.

“I’d snap someone’s hand off for that in the future. I’m just at the point now where I have to go and make a proper football career for myself - before I start to drift away.”