Neilson has 'no concerns' over playing John Souttar at Ibrox

Robbie Neilson says he will have no concerns over playing John Souttar against Rangers if the Scotland defender is fit for Sunday’s game at Ibrox.

Souttar signed a pre-contract agreement with the Premiership champions in January and will join up with Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s men in the summer.

But he will arrive at Ibrox this weekend as part of a squad who are looking to put a bigger dent in the home side’s title defence.

Neilson said: “Hopefully John will be back. He done some running today and hopefully will train tomorrow then he will be available for the weekend.

“I’m pretty confident he will play. I spoke to him this morning and he is feeling a lot better so he should be okay.

“I have no concerns at all (about his professionalism). John has been great. This has been going on now for around a month and he has been great, trained away at 100%. When he has played he has been very, very good and I expect him to do exactly the same.

“It is a big game and he is one of our best players so it’s important, if he is fit, he plays and I am pretty sure he will play well.”

Neilson’s men are currently sitting comfortably in third place and the manager knows he could be facing a wounded animal in their visit to Ibrox.

He said: “It is a difficult venue to go to and they coming off of the back of an Old Firm defeat so it can go both ways. But from our perspective we need to believe we can go there and get a result, which I think we do. We got a draw there last time and played very well for periods of the game.

“Don’t get me wrong, Rangers are a very good team and you will have to try and contain them, but I think we are slowly progressing and getting closer and closer [to a victory in Glasgow].”