Duo's return will lift Rangers, says Dailly

Christian Dailly has welcomed the return of Barry Ferguson and Allan McGregor from two-week bans and insisted Rangers will benefit from having them back.

The duo returned to training at Murray Park yesterday after the club's manager, Walter Smith, performed a U-turn and told the pair they were back in his plans. He had previously informed journalists that both players would not play for Rangers again, following their antics while on international duty.

"It's nice to have them back," Dailly said yesterday. "They have served their punishment and that's it done. But I don't think it's been ideal. As a club, we would have preferred that we'd had them all the time and hadn't ended up in the situation that we were in. But I think everyone pulled together well and we had three wins in a week from three tough games. It's been fine. The main thing is that we know we've got people who can come in and do a job. Now that they're back, the squad will be bolstered."

Smith has refused to say whether Ferguson or McGregor will be involved in Sunday's Premier League game at Hibernian, and Dailly said he was in the dark: "It's up to the manager, he picks the team. We just train together. We are the sort of team who thinks whoever plays, we can still win the game."

Rangers head into the weekend action trailing Celtic by a single point in the title race. But Dailly insisted: "It's still within our hands. If we win all the games, we win the league. We know that but it's going to be difficult and there are definitely going to be a few twists and turns."