Nice and kneesy does it as Rangers star Graham Dorrans battles back

GRAHAM DORRANS never had any fears that he would have to quit football.

The Rangers midfielder has been dogged by injury since arriving at Ibrox last summer.

He injured an ankle just a couple of months after his debut, and suffered knee ligament damage against Aberdeen in May.

That second injury took longer than expected to clear up, but Dorrans maintains the delay was only a minor setback.

He said: “I’m 31 now, so I’m not that old. It’s not ideal when you get an injury, but I always knew that I would come back.

“The timing of it wasn’t great, and the timescale was that I was supposed to be back for pre-season.

“But then I was still getting niggles in it.

“I came back from pre-season training in Spain and had to see some more specialists about it.

“I got a few more injections, and hopefully we’re at the end of it now.

“Thankfully, I can now get out on the pitch and take part in all the training.

“I’ve got a couple of weeks training behind me now, so I need to just continue that, get game time and get sharper.”

Dorrans, who had his first start of the season against Ayr United in midweek, had to sit and watch Steven Gerrard sign a plethora of midfield players, but he sees that as a positive thing.

He went on: “The manager said we could have as many as 58 games this season, so we need that big a squad, and good players who can come in and do a job.

“We’ve been playing Thursday-Sunday, so people are going to get niggles and aches.

“Last year was definitely tough, between everything that happened with my injuries and the changes at the club.

“But there’s a feel-good factor about the place now. The squad’s good and the boys are really enjoying it. The training’s good.”

Dorrans is hopeful that Rangers can follow-up their Europa League draw in Villarreal with a home win against Rapid Vienna on Thursday night.

He said: “It was a good point for us last week.

“Villareal are a good side. We went into the game believing we could get something and came away with a point.

“Maybe we could have nicked it in the end but, overall, a draw was probably a fair result.

“Going into Thursday, it’s another big European night. Hopefully we can get three points.

“It will be tough. They had a good result in their tie with Spartak Moscow.

“But, with the crowd behind us, I’m sure we can push on to get a positive result.”

Rapid Vienna’s poor start to their league season continued when they lost 2-0 at home to St Poelten, their fourth defeat in nine games.