Rangers receive injury return boost as Philippe Clement provides update on six stars ahead of Kilmarnock trip

The Brazilian striker has only made two appearances for the Ibrox side since picking up a knee injury in December last year which has required two operations.

The 26-year-old made his initial comeback in August, starting the 2-0 victory over St Johnstone and then scoring off the bench in a 6-0 win over Ross County.

However, it emerged that he required a second surgery to correct some underlying complications and Danilo has spent the past eight weeks on the sidelines.

Rangers boss Philippe Clement confirmed the player signed from Feyenoord last summer for £6million is now back in full training and in contention to feature at Rugby Park.

"We will see how fit he is for the weekend," Clement surmised in his Friday pre-match press conference.

The Belgian also confirmed that winger Oscar Cortes is facing "several" more weeks on the sidelines but issued more positive updates on Ridvan Yilmaz and Rabbi Matondo.

"Ridvan I expect back in training next week, Matondo later on next week or the following week," he stated.

Ianis Hagi is suspended for the Killie game after being sent off on his long-awaited return from first-team exile against St Johnstone prior to the international break. Rangers could also be without Ross McCausland after the winger missed out on Northern Ireland's 5-0 win over Bulgaria due to injury.

“The only one is Ross but he had a small issue before the break," Clememt confirmed. "He is back in training but not certain to be available."

Clement was appointed Rangers boss on October 15 last year and soon won the Premier Sports Cup before his side reached the last-16 of the Europa League and climbed to the top of the league before being overtaken by eventual champions Celtic, who also beat them in the Scottish Cup final.

Amid ongoing boardroom changes this season and with a much-changed squad, Clement’s side were knocked out of the Champions League qualifiers and are in the middle of a Europa League campaign, while currently trailing Celtic and Aberdeen by five points at the top of the table.

He said: “It’s difficult to discuss all of what happened in one year. That it’s good that we won a trophy along the way, I wanted more.

“We were close on more, but not good enough. We had to do – and it’s about we, it’s never about I – we needed to do a big rebuild in the club in every sense, on the pitch, off the pitch, so many things happened.

“So I’m putting every energy into that, day and night, to get this club back where it belongs, for me.

“So the future is much more important than the past, in that way. Yes, there are steps made, but we still have to make several steps to get where we want to be.

“That’s with staff, that’s with players, that’s with the board, that’s with the investors, that’s with everybody together, making things better.

“So I’ve seen steps made, I’ve seen also that we lost things along the way when people left.

“So now you need to rebuild again, with players, with people from outside of the staff. So in that way, it’s about working hard to improve.”